Baldwin v. Blue Stem Oil Co.
Supreme Court of Kansas
189 P. 920 (Kan. 1920)
Blue Stem Oil Company (defendant) leased oil and gas rights from Baldwin and other landowners (plaintiffs) under a lease running three years and as long thereafter as oil or gas was actually produced; Blue Stem began drilling only about a month before the three-year term expired and, citing bad weather, sick employees, and federal wartime intervention in the coal industry, failed to complete the well or produce anything before the deadline. The landowners sued to cancel the lease for nonperformance, and the trial court granted judgment on the pleadings in their favor; Blue Stem appealed, arguing its excuses should extend the lease.
Whether a lessee's excuses for failing to produce oil or gas within an oil-and-gas lease's fixed primary term operate to extend that lease once the term has already expired due to nonperformance.