MULLINNIX LLC v. HKB Royalty Trust

KITE, Justice.

[¶ 1] The dispositive issue in this case was whether deeds reserving “oil rights” which were executed in the 1940s in Campbell County, effectively reserved gas rights without a specific reference to “gas.” In these consolidated appeals, Mullinnix, LLC and John W. Hickman, Fred J. Boyce and Lane Boyce (hereinafter referred to as Hick-mans) contest the district court’s order quiet ing title in gas rights in the appellees. The district court examined extrinsic evidence of the trade usage of the term “oil rights” at the time and place of the execution of the deeds and concluded the…