Allen v. Gulf Oil Corp.

139 S.W.2d 207, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 227
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 20, 1940
DocketNo. 8852
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 139 S.W.2d 207 (Allen v. Gulf Oil Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. Gulf Oil Corp., 139 S.W.2d 207, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 227 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

McCLENDON, Chief Justice.

Rule 37 case. The appeal is by Allen, the permittee, and the Railroad Commission from a final judgment setting aside an order of the Commission granting a permit to drill a third well'upon a 2.77-acre tract ip the East Texas Oil Field, “to prevent confiscation of property,” and perpetually enjoining production from the well drilled-thereunder; the judgment providing that it is “without prejudice to the right of the defendant, W. L. Allen, to take such proceedings before the Railroad Commission .as conditions arising after the time the permit herein cancelled was granted may warrant.”

We quote this provision of the judgment for the reason that Allen contends that since it perpetually enjoins him from production from the well, it precludes-further application to the Commission based upon subsequent changed conditions which would warrant granting a permit. The contingency authorizing such subsequent permit is thus expressly provided for in the judgment. But even in the absence of this express provision, the same effect would Be given -the judgment. The paramount purpose of the suit was to set side the permit upon the alleged non-existence of facts at the time it was granted warranting such granting. The injunction against production from the granted well was merely an essential enforcement remedy ancillary to-the judgment annulling the order.

The suit was tried after the decision in the Century case (Railroad Com. v. Magnolia Pet. Co., 130 Tex. 484, 109 S.W.2d 967) and its interpretation by this court in Gulf Oil Corp. v. Wood, Tex.Civ.App., 120 S.W.2d 543, error dismissed, and before the decisions in the Atlantic case (Gulf Land Co. v. Atlantic Ref. Co., Tex.Sup., 131 S. W.2d 73), and in Railroad Com. v. Gulf [209]*209Prod. Co., Tex.Sup., 132 S.W.2d 254, and those of this court in Ward Oil Co. v. Overton Ref. Co., 131 S.W.2d 700; Shell Pet. Corp. v. R. R. Com., 133 S.W.2d 194, error refused, and Shell Pet. Corp. v. Railroad, Tex.Civ.App., 137 S.W.2d 797. For that reason, no doubt, both the question of confiscation and that of waste were developed. The evidence shows that the 2.77 acre tract was a part of a 3.11 acre lease upon which three wells had been granted. Thereafter, a tract containing .34- acre upon which one of the wells was located was alienated by Allen, leaving in him the remainder of the' tract, containing 2.77 acres upon which were the remaining two -wells. It was upon this' 2:77-acre. tract, that permit was granted to (frill a; third well — that in question.

The evidence conclusively shows that the' two wells on the 2.77 acres and the three wells on the 3.11 acres were amply sufficient to protect the ^owners of'those tracts in their right do recover their fair share of the recoverable oil in place under those tracts; and therefore confiscation was conclusively negatived.

While not expressly so, this is practically conceded by appellants. They seek, however, to support the permit upon the prevention of waste theory. The trial court manifestly annulled the permit upon both the confiscation and waste theories. There is a,mass of testimony upon the latter; but since the permit was granted only “to prevent confiscation of property,’’ the waste theory is eliminated, and we pretermit its discussion. Atlantic case, Railroad Com. v. Gulf Prod. Co., Ward Oil Co. v. Overton Ref. Co., and Shell cases, above.

By cross-assignment appellee urges error of the trial court in an order granting a supersedeas and in overruling a motion to set aside that order. The order recites that it was- granted in open court upon motion to fix the amount of a supersedeas bond. The motion to set aside the order asserted that the order was oral, and granted ex parte, and that the effect of the supersedeas will be to injure appellee irreparably, the bond affording no protection against such injury; and offered to submit proof of these assertions. ..

The cross-assignment is predicated upon the proposition that the proceeding (a statutory appeal from an order of an administrative board) is not a civil suit, and therefore is governed exclusively by the authorizing statute. Vernon’s Tex. Civ.Ann., Art; 6049c, Sec. 11. The question is clearly ruled by the decision in Magnolia Pet. Co. v. Clendon, 123 Tex. 10, 65 S.W.2d 484, unless, as asserted by appellee, the amendment to that section passed in 1935 (44th Leg.Reg.Sess., p. 74, Ch. 28, § 2) denied the.theretofore existing right to a supersedeas. The original Art. 6049c, Sec. 11, was passed in 1931, Gen.Laws 42nd Leg., 1st C.S., Chap. 26, p. 46, § 11, and was in effect in 1933, when the Magnolia case was decided. We. have carefully examined both the original act of 1931 and the amendment of 1935,' and find nothing in either which expressly or by implication either grants or denies the fight of supersedeas." This right was predicated in the Magnolia case upon Arts. 2249, 2270, 2275, Rev.St.1925, and the decisions in Houthchens v. Mercer, 119 Tex. 431, 29 S.W.2d 1031, 69 A.L.R. 1103, and Yett v. Cook, 115 Tex. 175, 268 S.W. 715. We find nothing in the amendment of 1935 which would authorize a construction in the respect in question other than that given the original act of 1931 in the Magnolia case.

Appellee cites in this connection the holding of the Fort Worth court in Mayhew v. Power, Tex.Civ.App., 104 S.W.2d 642, 644, Justice Speer writing. That was an original mandamus proceeding to require the district judge to fix the amount of a super-sedeas bond in an appeal from a final judgment refusing to set aside, an order of the Liquor Control-Board cancelling a permit to sell beer-, and-wine. .The right to supersede-the'.judgment was denied upon what we regard-as a proper construction of Vernon’s Ahn.P.C. Arts. 666 — 12 and 666 — 14. The former contains the following: “In the event of resort to any -Court from an order of cancellation or suspension in whatever, form-the proceedings may be brought, it shall in no wise act as a supersedeas of the order, of cancellation or suspension. The permit so cancelled or suspended shall stand cancelled or suspended pending the final disposition-of the proceedings as here.-inaf ter. conditioned.”

The latter provides: “And in- the event of any person being aggrieved by any decision, rule, or order of the Board, such person shall have the right of an appeal therefrom to the District Court of the County in which a decision, .rule, or-order in such case would become effective, said suit to be against the Board alone as defendant, and such suit-. shall -.be tried de novo, and be governed by the same rules as other suits in said Court., and. during the pendency of [210]*210such suit the order of the Board may be suspended by interlocutory order of the Court pending' a hearing on the merits.”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

U.S. Denro Steels, Inc. v. Lieck
342 S.W.3d 677 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011)
Carleton v. Dierks
203 S.W.2d 552 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1947)
Burford v. Sun Oil Co.
186 S.W.2d 306 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1944)
Corzelius v. Harrell.
179 S.W.2d 419 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1944)
Gulf Oil Corp. v. Rudco Oil & Gas Co.
164 S.W.2d 222 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1942)
Lippincott v. Atlantic Refining Co.
156 S.W.2d 998 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1941)
Stantex Petroleum Co. v. Gulf Oil Corp.
157 S.W.2d 407 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1941)
Wood v. Gulf Oil Corporation
147 S.W.2d 818 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1941)
Gulf Oil Corp. v. Smith
145 S.W.2d 280 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1940)
Spear v. Humble Oil & Refining Co.
139 S.W.2d 212 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1940)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
139 S.W.2d 207, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 227, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-gulf-oil-corp-texapp-1940.