Langford v. Hughes

Opinion op the Court by

Stanley, Commissioner

Affirming.

The judgment is for the defendant in a suit to cancel a coal lease and recover damages for waste.

The plaintiff, now appellant, J. W. Langford, executed a mineral lease of ten acres to Tom Hughes on August 1, 1941. It provides that if the lessee should commit waste or leave mineable coal, the contract is to become “null and void and non-effect.” The defendant denied the charges, pleaded estoppel and entered a counterclaim for sums paid the plaintiff as royalties. Although he had executed the lease as if he were the owner, title was in his…