Baten v. Campbell

62 S.W.2d 1010, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 1057
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 27, 1933
DocketNo. 2529
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 62 S.W.2d 1010 (Baten v. Campbell) 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
Baten v. Campbell, 62 S.W.2d 1010, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 1057 (Tex. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinion

WALKER, Chief Justice.

This is a mandamus suit, filed in this court on the 27th day of June, 1933, as an original proceeding, with Thomas J. Baten as relator, against Hon. J. D. Campbell, judge of the Sixtieth district court, as respondent. The case was duly submitted to us on the 6th day of July,’ upon the verified petition of relator, the verified answer of respondent, their written briefs, and their oral argument. No evidence other than the verified pleadings was offered or received upon submission. The facts, as reflected by the pleadings, may be stated briefly as follows: On the 23d day of January, 1926, Mrs. Jeanette M. Mann, joined by her husband, Charles H. Mann, claiming the absolute title to 1 acre of land in Spindletop oil field, a part of the John Douthitt 152-acre survey in Jefferson county, executed a lease thereon to relator, by a specific description to the effect that it was adjacent to the west boundary line of the right of way of the Texas & New Orleans Railway Company and ran with the west line of the right of way 184.3 feet. In this lease the Maiins retained a royalty interest in the oil. It was the contention of the Manns and relator that the boundaries of this 1 acre of land extended, as a matter of law and by the express language of their •grant, across the west boundary line of the right of way to the center of the railroad track, thereby adding ¾0 of an acre of land to the specific 1 acre as described in the lease; the description in the lease was sufficient to cover the additional ¾0 of an acre of the right of way. On the 14th day of April, 1926, relator assigned his. lease thus executed to him by Mrs. Mann to Gulf Production Company, retaining a ½4 overriding royalty; whether or not this assignment was limited to the specific 1 acre or included the ¾0 of an acre of the railroad right of way is a disputed issue. On the 30th day of April, 1926, a group of litigants, W. S. Nearen et al., instituted suit No. 26612, styled W. S. Nearen et al. v. Mrs. Jeanette Mann et al., in the Fifty-Eighth district court of Jefferson’ county, of which Hon. Geo. C. O’Brien was and still is judge, to recover an interest in the land and premises leased by Mrs. Mann to relator. Final judgment was entered in that cause on the 11th day of June, 1926, to the effect that the Nearens and their attorneys, S. M. Kins and John C. Jackson, recover a one-half interest in all the land covered by relator’s lease, and that the Manns recover the other one-half interest, and ratifying and confirming relator’s lease as executed to him by Mrs. Mann and her husband, and also ratifying and confirming the interest of Gulf Production Company as assigned to it by relator. The Texas & New Orleans Railroad Company and Rio Bravo Oil Company took leases on the ¾0 of an acre of the right of way, claimed [1012]*1012by the Manns and Nearens, from parties claiming adversely to the Manns and Near-ens, and proceeded to develop this ¾0 of an acre of land for oil. Thereafter, on the 21sfc day of July, 1926, the Manns, the Nearens, and their attorneys, King & Jackson, and relator and Gulf Production Company instituted a suit against Rio Bravo Oil Company and the parties under whom it claimed in the Sixtieth district court of Jefferson county, of which respondent was and still is judge, styled Mrs. Jeanette Mann et al. v.Rio Bravo Oil Company et al., and numbered 27039, to try the title to the ¾0 °i an acre of the railroad right of way, and to enjoin the defendants from prospecting upon and developing it for oil. About the same time another group of litigants, Jas. P. Weed et al., holding a claim against another portion of the railroad right of way, identical in its legal effect with the claim of the plaintiffs in cause No. 27039, instituted a similar suit in the Sixtieth district court against Rio Bravo Oil Company and those under whom it claimed, praying for the same relief as prayed for by the plaintiffs in cause No. 27039. The parties to both these suits mutually agreed to prosecute the Weed suit to final judgment as a test of the title of the right of way, and, to effectuate that agreement, the parties to cause No. 27039, Mann et ah v. Rio Bravo Oil Company et ah, entered into the following written agreements:

“The parties to the above styled and numbered cause, appearing herein by and through their respective attorneys of record, enter into the following stipulation and agreement:
“1. In order to preserve the interests of all parties hereto, in so far as possible,' and to cause as little inconvenience and expense as possible, it is agreed that operations inay be continued by the defendants on the property in plaintiffs’ petition described, as if no injunction or temporary restraining order had been prayed for herein, provided that if the final judgment in this cause by the Court of last resort acting thereon be that plaintiffs are entitled to a permanent injunction herein, plaintiffs shall be entitled to the oil produced, or the value thereof on the day produced, together with six per cent (6%) interest from the time of production; provided that defendants shall be allowed to deduct and' retain from the oil produced from each well drilled and brought in by them the actual expenses incurred by them for labor and material in drilling and operating such well, plus the overhead charge of five per cent (5%) of the amount, however, that in the event the production of any well is not sufficient to pay the cost and expenses thereof, same shall not be a charge against the production of any other well; and provided further that in such event the plaintiffs, shall be the owners of the physical properties used in the drilling and operation of said well and paid for out of the expense of said wells and they shall have the right to remove sail physical properties from said premises.
“2. In the event the final decree in thi cause by the court of last resort passing oi the same is that the plaintiffs are not th owners of the minerals in the land describe! in plaintiffs’ petition, and that they are no entitled to a permanent injunction as there! prayed for, then, in that event, the oil pro duced by the defendants from said land during the pendency of this suit shall be th property of the defendants, as their interest may appear.
“3. This agreement shall not affect th merits of this cause, nor any of the rights o the parties, except as herein stipulated am agreed.”
“4. (Paragraph 4 is omitted as immateria here).
“5. By the use of the term ‘value thereo on the day produced,’ as used in Paragrapl 1, of this agreement, is meant the prevailin; posted price of oil in the field on the day o production.”

The foregoing agreement was signed h; counsel for all parties in that proceeding Contemporaneously therewith, there was als signed and filed in cause No. 27039 the follow ing additional agreement:

“The parties to the above styled and num bered cause, appearing herein by am through their respective attorneys of record enter into the following stipulation and agree ment, supplementing the stipulation am agreement heretofore entered into by all par ties on the-day of-A. D. 1926;

“1. Whereas, there is a suit now pendinj in the 60th District Court of Jefferson Coun ty, Texas, No. 26969, styled James E. Weed( et al. v. Rio Bravo Oil Company et al. in which the issues of law and fact are thi same as in this cause, and an adjudicatioi of such issues will determine the rights o: the parties herein, said cause having pre cedence on the docket of said court:

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Related

Womack v. Berry
291 S.W.2d 677 (Texas Supreme Court, 1956)
Gulf Pipe Line Co. v. Mann
111 S.W.2d 335 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1937)
Rio Bravo Oil Co. v. Hebert
106 S.W.2d 242 (Texas Supreme Court, 1937)

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Bluebook (online)
62 S.W.2d 1010, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 1057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baten-v-campbell-texapp-1933.