Ronald Sutton and Bonnie Sutton v. Lonnie Sutton and Lorene Sutton

Summary

The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed a judgment holding that a warranty-deed reservation of one-half of the mineral rights was ineffective under the Duhig rule because the grantors owned only a twenty-five-percent mineral interest. The court rejected the appellants’ reliance on subjective intent and applied objective deed-construction principles. The mineral interests passed to the grantee and subsequently to the grantee’s transferee.

Holdings

1. Subjective intent that is not manifested in the language of a warranty deed does not control its construction; the deed must be interpreted under objective rules of construction.
2. When a grantor's warranty deed purports to convey and reserve the entire mineral estate but the grantor owns less than the amount necessary to satisfy both provisions, the reservation fails and the risk of title loss falls on the grantor.
3. Lonnie acquired appellants' twenty-five percent mineral interest through the 1996 warranty deed, and Lorene acquired Lonnie's mineral interests through the subsequent quitclaim deed; Lorene therefore held fifty percent of the mineral rights.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the subjective intent of the grantors could establish that they retained fifty percent of the mineral rights despite the language of the 1996 warranty deed.
2. Whether, under the Duhig rule, the mineral-rights reservation in the 1996 warranty deed failed because the appellants owned only twenty-five percent of the mineral rights but the deed purported to convey and reserve fifty percent each.

Disposition

affirmed