## Facts

- In 1924, mineral owners executed an oil and gas lease covering two adjoining tracts to Wetzel Natural Gas Company.
- The lease provided that after completion of one producing gas well on either tract, the lessors would receive 150,000 cubic feet of gas per year free of charge for residential heating and lighting in one house on or off the leased premises.
- The lease was assigned to Browns Run Gas Company, which drilled a producing gas well, and was later assigned to J. S. Church; lease interests later passed through additional conveyances.
- Charles and Blanche Kimble became successors in interest to the original lessors’ interest and received free gas for their residence for many years under the lease provision.
- In 1949, Wetzel disconnected the plaintiffs’ residence from the gas line and refused to continue furnishing the annual free gas.
- The plaintiffs sued for injunctive relief requiring restoration and continued delivery of 150,000 cubic feet of free gas per year for domestic use.

## Issues

1. Whether the lease’s free-gas clause created a continuing right enforceable by the lessors’ successors in interest.
2. Whether the lessee or successor lessee remained obligated to furnish up to 150,000 cubic feet of free gas annually so long as the lease remained in force and the clause’s conditions were met.
3. Whether an injunction was an appropriate remedy to enforce the free-gas obligation.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed the circuit court’s decree granting injunctive relief.
- The court held the free-gas clause was part of the lease consideration and created a continuing contractual right enforceable by successors in title.
- The court held Wetzel, as the party operating under the lease, was bound to furnish the specified annual free gas while the lease remained effective and a producing well existed as required by the clause.
- The court upheld an injunction compelling Wetzel to resume and continue supplying the contractually specified free gas.

## Legal Principles

- A free-gas clause in an oil and gas lease is construed as part of the consideration for the lease and may impose an ongoing obligation for the lease’s duration.
- Such a covenant is enforceable by the lessors’ successors in interest when the lease language and circumstances indicate the benefit is tied to the lessors’ retained interest rather than limited to personal privilege.
- A lessee and its assigns take the lease with its burdens as well as benefits and may not accept production advantages while rejecting an agreed free-gas obligation.
- Injunctive relief may be proper to enforce a definite, continuing free-gas obligation when damages would be inadequate and would invite repetitive litigation.

## Conclusion

The court required the lessee to continue furnishing 150,000 cubic feet of free gas per year for domestic use under the lease’s free-gas clause, holding that the right passed to successors of the lessors and could be enforced by injunction while the lease remained in force and its conditions were satisfied.


Kimble v. Wetzel Nat. Gas Co., 134 W. Va. 761, 61 S.E.2d 728 (1950)