Energetics, Ltd. v. Benchley

Defendants-appellants appeal as of right from a circuit court order which determined that defendants-appellees were entitled to royalties from plaintiff. We reverse.

Plaintiff filed an action for a determination of whom among competing claimants it should pay royalties for gas, oil, and mineral rights.

The pertinent history of this case begins in 1933, when Edwin J. Whitmill and Lola J. Whitmill purchased eighty acres. In 1945, the Whitmills conveyed this land to Archie and Evelyn Cudney, but reserved one-half of the oil, gas, and mineral rights. On July 19, 1951, the Whitmills executed a lease…