John

This is an action to- quiet title to real property and to forfeit a lease upon the same. Judgment was entered forfeiting the lease, and defendants appeal therefrom.

The complaint contains two causes of action: One, a simple action to quiet title, and the other setting up facts which it is alleged constitute a forfeiture of the lease. The answer, after denying the allegations of the complaint, sets up five defenses, all of which, except the third, are based upon waiver or estoppel. The lease in question is in the usual form of an oil and gas lease. The following portions thereof are pertinent to this inquiry:

By mesne conveyances and assignments, defendants became interested in the lease as lessees or otherwise; and the lessors in said lease, by successive extensions, extended and postponed the time for the commencing of actual drilling operations up to and including the first day of January, 1929. Each of said extensions was given in writing by plaintiff Gr. A. John, who died while this action has been pending. We shall, however, designate him as “plaintiff” in this opinion. The term of the lease was twenty years from its date, November 30, 1920. It was provided therein that the…