Washburn

It appears that plaintiffs, together with Stuart M. Salisbury and Lois C. Salisbury, were the owners of certain real property which, for the purpose of drilling and operating thereon for the production of petroleum, etc., they leased to the A. F. Gilmore Company, a corporation, and that thereafter, following several preceding assignments thereof, the said lease was assigned to defendants E. C. Joannes and Roy Maggart, doing business under the firm name of J. & M. Oil Company; that prior to such last-mentioned assignment, one of the former assignees had drilled an oil-well on the leased property and in the course of production operations had excavated or constructed thereon several sump holes. It also appears that in pursuance of authority reserved to the lessors by the provisions of the lease, for a violation by the lessee or its assignee of some of its covenants, the lessors terminated the lease. With reference to the obligations of the lessee on the happening of such a contingency, the lease contained the following provision:

For the failure of the last assignees of the lease, namely, Joannes and Maggart, doing business under the firm name of J. & M. Oil Company, to “cover up…