Meyers

The plaintiffs brought this action to impeach the accounting of defendant covering the period from September 9, 1924, to June 30, 1930, as lessee under an oil lease, and recovered judgment in the sum of $116,710.39. Both plaintiffs and defendant have appealed, the defendant from that part of the judgment which awarded plaintiffs a sum representing the quantity and gravity of royalty oil not accounted for, and the plaintiffs from that part of the judgment which denied them recovery of additional sums for casinghead gasoline royalty. We shall first dispose of the defendant’s appeal.

The lease covered a ten-acre parcel of land in the Huntington Beach oil field and provided for a one-sixth royalty to lessors, which might, at lessor’s option, be taken in kind, and, if they did not so elect, the lessee was authorized, according to the provisions of paragraph IH-g of the lease, “to handle, market, sell and/or otherwise dispose of said royalty oil, with and as a part of the products belonging to the lessee, and pay to the lessors in money, the proceeds thereof, less cost of handling after leaving tank or container”. (Italics ours.) Section 1-1 of the lease reads as follows: “That it will…