Corey v. Sunburst Oil & Gas Co‪.‬

Quieting Title ? Oil and Gas Leases ? Homesteads ? Execution of Lease Before Patent ? Validity ? Want of Equity on Face of Record ? Dismissal of Appeal ? Pleading and Practice. Motion for Judgment on Pleadings ? Denial ? Appeal Does not Lie. 1. Under section 9165, Revised Codes of 1921, an appeal does not lie from an order denying a motion for judgment on the pleadings. Same ? In Effect Demurrer to Answer. 2. Plaintiffs motion for judgment on the pleadings is in effect a demurrer to the answer. Same ? Denial ? Entry of Judgment of Dismissal at Request of Appellant ? Right of Appeal. 3. Where plaintiff, after his motion for judgment on the pleadings had been denied, asked the court to enter such a judgment as would allow of an appeal, and judgment of dismissal follows, the plaintiff himself causing its entry, his action in doing so was not such a consent to the judgment as to debar him of the right of appeal. Quieting Title ? Oil and Gas Lease ? Want of Equity Appearing on Face of Record ? Dismissal of Appeal. 4. Plaintiff, a homesteader, executed an oil and gas lease to defendants predecessor before final proof. After patent was issued to him he brought suit to quiet title to the land, claiming that the lease was void. Suit was not brought until after large sums - Page 384 of money had been expended in exploring the land and oil in paying quantities found. After judgment of dismissal and argument on appeal, defendant moved dismissal of the appeal on the ground that plaintiff had in the interim recognized the lease by demanding in writing payment of royalties due under the lease and advising defendant that he looked to it for compensation. Held, under the doctrine that one who comes into a court of equity must come with clean hands, that the plaintiff does not so come to the supreme court and that the appeal must be dismissed on the ground of want of equity appearing on the face of the record.