Thornhill v. System Fuels, Inc.

The McLeods conveyed a mineral interest in land to Thornhill (plaintiff) by deed reserving for themselves bonuses and delay rentals from future oil and gas leases, without expressly reserving the executive right to lease the minerals; System Fuels (defendant), which operated wells on the land, argued this reservation implicitly reserved the executive right too, making Thornhill's interest merely a royalty interest rather than a full mineral interest. The chancery court agreed with System Fuels, and Thornhill appealed.