Co-Tenant Drilling Does Not Satisfy Lessee's Unless Clause Obligations: Hughes v. Cantwell

The El Paso Court of Civil Appeals held that a lessee holding an undivided 1/128th mineral interest could not rely on a co-tenant's drilling operations to satisfy the lease's unless clause requiring commencement of operations or payment of delay rentals, resulting in automatic termination when Hughes failed to pay the $1.00 per acre rental due November 8, 1973. The court rejected arguments that absence of the phrase "by the lessee" in the drilling commencement language allowed third-party operations to maintain the lease, finding the instrument's entirety demonstrated obligations were exclusively assigned to the named lessee.