## Facts

- Before 1801, Thomas Wright owned a tract of land and the coal beneath it.
- In 1801, Wright conveyed the land to Henry Courtright by deed containing this clause: Wright reserved for “himself, his heirs and assignees, a free toleration of getting coal for their own use, without hindrance or denial.”
- The land was underlaid with coal, and the parties disputed whether the quoted language severed and reserved the coal as an exclusive mineral estate in Wright, or instead reserved only a limited right to take coal for personal use.
- Over time, Courtright’s title to the land was acquired by Myers through adverse possession.
- Myers transferred his interest to Northern Coal & Iron Co. (Northern Coal).
- Algonquin Coal Co. (Algonquin), claiming through Wright as his successor/assignee, did not claim the surface but asserted exclusive ownership of the coal and sued Northern Coal in an amicable trespass action to recover for coal that Northern Coal mined.
- Northern Coal argued that the deed clause gave Wright’s successors only an incorporeal privilege to take coal concurrently with the surface owner, and only to the extent needed “for their own use.”
- The Court of Common Pleas (bench trial) entered judgment for Northern Coal, and Algonquin appealed.

## Issues

1. Did the 1801 deed clause reserving a “free toleration of getting coal for their own use” reserve an exclusive coal estate in the grantor, or only a limited privilege to remove coal for personal use?
2. When (and how) does adverse possession of the surface carry mineral rights, and what changes if a mineral estate has been severed from the surface?

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the judgment for Northern Coal.
- The court held that the 1801 clause did not reserve exclusive ownership of the coal to Wright; it reserved only a privilege for Wright, his heirs, and assignees to obtain coal for their personal needs.
- Because the deed did not sever the coal as a separate estate, title to the coal passed with the land to Courtright and then to Myers (by adverse possession), and from Myers to Northern Coal, subject only to the limited reserved privilege.

## Legal Principles

- Deed language reserving a “free toleration” to take coal “for their own use” is construed as an incorporeal right of user limited to personal use, not as a reservation of the entire coal stratum as an exclusive, separate estate.
- Until a severance occurs between surface and subsurface estates, ownership and possession of the land extends vertically to include minerals; a conveyance of the land, or acquisition by adverse possession, carries the minerals with it.
- After a true severance of the mineral estate, if the mineral owner records title or takes possession of the subsurface estate, later defects in surface title or later surface adverse possession do not transfer the severed minerals.
- A plaintiff cannot recover in trespass for coal extraction on a theory of exclusive coal ownership where the plaintiff holds only a limited personal-use privilege rather than title to the coal.

## Conclusion

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania concluded that Wright’s 1801 deed did not carve out and retain a separate coal estate; it left coal ownership with the grantee while granting Wright’s successors only a limited right to take coal for their own use. With no severed coal estate proven, Myers’s adverse possession of the land carried the coal, and Northern Coal’s mining did not trespass on an exclusively owned coal estate claimed by Algonquin, so the judgment for Northern Coal was affirmed.


Algonquin Coal Co. v. Northern Coal & Iron Co., 162 Pa. 114, 29 A. 402 (1894)