Dunigan Tool & Supply Co. v. Carroll

60 S.W.2d 296, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 682
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 19, 1933
DocketNo. 7843
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 60 S.W.2d 296 (Dunigan Tool & Supply Co. v. Carroll) 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
Dunigan Tool & Supply Co. v. Carroll, 60 S.W.2d 296, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 682 (Tex. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinion

BLAIR, Justice.

The question in this appeal is whether certain contracts for the drilling of oil wells constitute a mining partnership as a matter of law between C. M. Carroll and Cardinal Oil Company, so as to render the latter liable as a partner for certain materials sold by appellant, Dunigan Tool & Supply Company, to Carroll, and used by him as necessary materials in drilling the oil wells.

On July 8, 1929, George D. Morgan, as the owner of an ordinary seven-eighths oil and gas lease on two tracts of land, executed a written contract with Carroll, as contractor, to drill a test well for oil and gas on each tract of the land. Carroll agreed to pay “all expenses for labor, fuel, water, machinery, upkeep, cordage, and other equipment, and free of any expense to owner.” The owner agreed to pay as consideration or compensation for drilling the wells aá follows:

“(b) To pay to contractor the sum of $4,-000.00 cash, payable $2,000.00 upon completion of one well and $2,000.00 upon completion of the other well. It is understood in this connection that Owner is renting to Contractor a drilling outfit for said wells for $500.00 per month and any and all sums which may be due for rental on said tools and drilling outfit shall be deducted from said cash consideration; and
“To assign and transfer to Contractor by valid legal assignments a three-sixteenths interest in and to the oil and gas mining leases and leaseholds on each of tracts Nos. 1 and 2 [297]*297first hereinbefore described, said assignments to be delivered to Contractor upon completion of the respective wells.”

Other provisions in the contract required the contractor to carry public liability and workmen’s compensation insurance; to furnish daily reports as to the progress of the drilling operations; to plug the wells in accordance with the rules of Railroad Commission in the event they were dry holes; and to draw and rack the casing used in the well for a certain stipulated price, under the direction of the owner. The two wells contracted for and drilled by Carroll were producers, and in accordance with the drilling agreement Morgan executed an assignment of a three-sixteenths undivided interest in the oil and gas in the two tracts of land to Carroll. This drilling contract also provided that, in the event the wells were producers of oil in paying quantities, the parties would execute “a fair joint operation contract * * * on the Humble fonn as nearly as possible.” This operating agreement was executed and in substance provided that Morgan should have exclusive charge, control, and management of the development and production and marketing of the oil, and that a joint account should be kept and each party charged with his pro rata of the cost of operation. In August, 1929, Morgan and the owners of the remaining thirteen-sixteenths interests in the oil and gas lease incorporated as the Cardinal Oil Company, each owner exchanging his interest in the lease for stock in the Cardinal Oil Company; and, desiring to further develop the lease, the Cardinal Oil Company, with Morgan as its president, on January 6, 1930, entered into a written contract with C. M. Carroll for the drilling of additional wells. This contract was similar to the Morgan contract with Carroll, in that it provided that the Cardinal Oil Company had the exclusive power to determine when and where each additional well was to be drilled, and further provided as follows: “Contractor agrees to furnish and pay for drilling machine engine and all equipment, material, water, fuel, tools, transportation, supervision, labor and all necessary supplies and all other charges excepting cellar, slush pit, and casing as provided below.”

The price to be paid for the drilling of this well was $2 cash and $1 in oil per lineal foot. The contractor was required to carry employees’ compensation insurance, and was made wholly responsible for any fire loss; and the contract contained the following provision: “Nothing herein shall be construed as creating a drilling or contracting partnership between the parties, provided however that this provision shall in no way be construed or interpreted to cancel or imperil an operating agreement between George D. Morgan and Claude M. Carroll. Dated-, 1930.”

The terms of this contract were orally re-' newed as each subsequent well was drilled without the execution of a new contract, and the joint operating account for each producing well, as between the Cardinal Oil Company and Carroll, was kept in the same manner as the joint operating contract with Morgan. Dunigan Tool & Supply Company sold Carroll the materials representing the open account sued upon herein, beginning in July, 1929, and ending in April, 1930, solely upon his credit and responsibility, there 'being no holding out of the Cardinal Oil Company as a partner; and no question of estop-pel arises in the case. None of the materials were used in the joint operating ’contracts, but were all furnished and used in connection with the drilling contracts, and were materials for which Carroll contracted and agreed to pay as a part of his drilling agreement; and all of the materials sued for, aggregating $2,137.67, less a credit of $633, were used by Carroll in the drilling of the first two -wells, except $164.39, which were used in drilling of some of the additional wells contracted for by the Cardinal Oil Company.

Appellant contends that from these contracts and acts of the parties three outstanding and essential facts appear, which constitute Carroll and Morgan and/or Cardinal Oil Company a mining partnership as a matter of law. We quote appellant’s contentions as follows: “In this case the outstanding and essential facts are: First, that Cardinal Oil Co. and C. M. Carroll were joint owners of the lease; Second, that they were actually uniting and co-operating in the development and operation thereof and ,in sharing in the profits as such; Third, that the materials and supplies on which this suit was brought were used in such operations and development. The result is inevitable that Cardinal Oil Co. became as a matter of law jointly and severally liable with the defendant Carroll for these expenses of operation and development regardless of the form of written contracts between the defendant Carroll and Cardinal Oil Co., wherein and whereby it was attempted to make Carroll liable only for such materials and supplies.”

We do not sustain these contentions. No materials were furnished by appellant in connection with the joint operating contracts executed for the purpose of producing and marketing the oil after the wells were completed and accepted under the drilling contracts. The operating contracts were separate and distinct from the drilling contracts, and would not have been executed had the wells proved dry holes. We therefore regard them as not being pertinent to the relationship of the parties as created by the terms of the drilling contracts, in connection with which appellant sold and furnished the materials in suit to Carroll.

Nor do we interpret the terms of the drilling contracts as constituting a mining [298]*298partnership between Carroll and Morgan ■and/or Cardinal Oil Company. The manifest purpose of the drilling contracts was to obtain the drilling of certain oil wells for a certain stipulated consideration or compensation.

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Bluebook (online)
60 S.W.2d 296, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 682, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dunigan-tool-supply-co-v-carroll-texapp-1933.