Criner v. Ritchie

Grieein Smith, Chief Justice.

The case, like others of like nature coming from areas where unusual developments affect values, presents issues that have acquired importance because oil and gas have been found.

Pee ownership of approximately sixty acres, and the status of mineral and royalty deeds, are involved.

Prior to 1860 a plantation proprietor named Mack C. Smith owned Reason Criner — a slave set free by the Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863. The slave’s son, John H., lived with his father on the Smith lands in 1886. Record ownership of the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter…