James W. Swayne v. Lone Acre Oil Company

Summary

The Texas Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Civil Appeals, holding that a life estate created by the statute of descent is subject to the common‑law rule of waste and that the life tenant is not entitled to any portion of the oil corpus, only to the use of the land. The Court reasoned that the statutory life estate carries the same incidents as common‑law life estates and that opening new mineral mines constitutes waste.