Arnstad v. North Dakota State Industrial Commission

122 N.W.2d 857, 1963 N.D. LEXIS 99
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 26, 1963
Docket8054
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 122 N.W.2d 857 (Arnstad v. North Dakota State Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arnstad v. North Dakota State Industrial Commission, 122 N.W.2d 857, 1963 N.D. LEXIS 99 (N.D. 1963).

Opinion

ERICKSTAD, Judge.

This is an appeal by Vernal Arnstad and Elmer Thomsen from the judgment of the District Court entered in the Office of the Clerk of Court of Burleigh County on the 27th day of February, 1962, affirming Order No. 257 in Case No. 235 of the North Dakota Industrial Commission. The appellants demanded a trial de novo.

Order No. 257 is in connection with pressure maintenance operations and is the same order from which the Syversons appealed in the case entitled Syverson v. North Dakota State Industrial Commission (N.D.), 111 N.W.2d 128. Background information pertinent to this case is contained in the aforesaid opinion.

Although the record of the proceedings preliminary to the order appealed from herein is not before this court, it would appear that an application for approval of a unitization agreement entered into by and between the operators in the Tioga-Madison oil field was submitted to the North Dakota Industrial Commission and that, pursuant to the provisions of section 38-0809 of the North Dakota Revised Code of 1943,, a hearing was held by the said commission to determine whether or not the said unitization agreement was in the public interest, protective of correlative rights, and reasonably necessary to increase the ultimate recovery or to prevent waste of oil or gas, as required by the aforesaid statute.

On March 14, 1958, the North Dakota Industrial Commission entered its order No. 220, approving the Unit Agreement and the Unit Operating Agreement for the Tioga-Madison field in Williams, Mountrail, and Burke Counties, North Dakota, which agreements we shall hereafter refer to as the Unit Agreement. No appeal was taken from this order.

Within a period of approximately six months of the aforesaid order, approximately ninety-eight percent of the owners of mineral and royalty interests in the area covered by the Unit Agreement had signed the Unit Agreement; and, under the terms of the said agreement, it became effective on August 1, 1958.

Amerada Petroleum Corporation, as unit operator, shortly prior to the effective date of the Unit Agreement, filed an application with the North Dakota Industrial Commission for permission, among other things, to inject water into the Tioga-Madison Reservoir, covered by the Unit Agreement, for the purpose of maintaining pressure in the reservoir.

*859 At the hearing on this application, held ■on August 19, 1958, the appellants appeared through their attorney and participated in the hearing by cross-examining the witnesses for the applicant and by making statements for the record, setting forth their position in the matter.

On September 6, 1958, the Industrial Commission issued its order No. 257, authorizing, among other things, the injection ■of water into the Tioga-Madison Reservoir and designating certain wells as injection wells for the unit.

The appellants then filed a petition for rehearing with the said commission, which rehearing was denied on October 15, 1958. The appellants then appealed from the order of the commission to the District Court of Burleigh County, which court, in its Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order for Judgment dated February 26, 1962, affirmed the order. Judgment of the District Court pursuant thereto was entered in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of Burleigh County on the 27th day of February, 1962. This appeal is from the judgment of the district court affirming the aforedescribed order of the ■commission.

The appellants and others share in the minerals, if any, in or under the North Half of the Southeast Quarter (Ni/£SEJ4J of Section Eighteen (18), Township One Hundred Fifty-seven (157) North, Range Ninety-four (94) West of the Fifth (5th) P.M.

This tract of land lies within the area designated on certain maps as being the Tioga-Madison Oil Field. At the time the application for unitization was made, the said mineral interests were not leased, and there was not a producing oil or gas well on the said tract.

Neither the application for unitization nor the order approving the Unit Agreement included the property of the applicants.

The major difference between this case and the case of Syverson v. North Dakota State Industrial Commission, N.D., 111 N.W.2d 128, is that in the said case the Syver-sons were offered an opportunity to be in the unit but declined, for reasons stated therein, whereas in this case the applicants have not had an opportunity on any basis to be within the unit.

The appellants assert three specifications of error. The first two specifications, hereinafter set forth, may be considered together.

“I.
“The District Court erred in its decision by concluding that the holding of the Supreme Court in the case of Syverson v. North Dakota Industrial Commission and Amerada Petroleum Corporation, 111 N.W.2d 128, was applicable to the facts and procedure followed by Appellants in this case.
“II.
“The North Dakota Supreme Court, in the Syverson case cited above, held that Syversons had appealed from the wrong order of the Industrial Commission, and that Syversons should have appealed from Order 220, and the District Court, in error, held, in its decisions, that the Appellants Vernal Arn-stad and Elmer Thomsen had likewise appealed from the wrong order.”

An analysis of the record on appeal in the instant case has convinced this court that the holding of this court in the case of Syverson v. North Dakota State Industrial Commission, supra, applies. This court in the said case, 111 N.W.2d on page 133, held:

“ * * * The findings as to public interest, correlative rights, making the greatest ultimate recovery, and prevention of waste were contained in order No. 220, which was not appealed from. There was competent evidence *860 to warrant the finding's of the Industrial Commission. In any event, this court will not consider these matters in an appeal from a subsequent order permitting injection of water into the field.”

Inasmuch as no appeal was made from order No. 220, the issues involved in determining whether the unit was in the public interest, protective of correlative rights, and reasonably necessary to increase ultimate recovery or to prevent waste of oil or gas, are not before this court for consideration.

The record of the proceedings of the Industrial Commission containing these determinations is not before this court at this time and was not before the court at the time of the determination of Syverson v. North Dakota State Industrial Commission, supra.

The district court, therefore, was correct in finding that the ruling in the aforede-scribed case applied, and that the appellants have appealed from the wrong order to raise the aforesaid issues.

The third specification of error asserted by the appellants reads as follows:

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Related

Hunt Oil Co. v. Kerbaugh
283 N.W.2d 131 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1979)

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122 N.W.2d 857, 1963 N.D. LEXIS 99, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arnstad-v-north-dakota-state-industrial-commission-nd-1963.