Faith United Methodist Church & Cemetery of Terra Alta v. Morgan

KETCHUM, Justice:

In Syllabus Point 1 of Ramage v. South Penn Oil Co., 1 the Court declared that the term “surface,” when used as a term of conveyance in a deed, is ambiguous on its face and always subject to modern-day interpretation using parol and other evidence extrinsic to the deed.

In this appeal from the Circuit Court of Preston County, we are asked to examine a 1907 deed of the “surface only” of a tract. The circuit court found the deed was ambiguous, based upon Ramage, and relied upon contemporary testimony to interpret the deed. The circuit court concluded that the deed conveying the…