Hunt v. Clifford H. Brown & Co.

239 S.W.2d 178, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 1997
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 16, 1951
Docket14383
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 239 S.W.2d 178 (Hunt v. Clifford H. Brown & Co.) 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
Hunt v. Clifford H. Brown & Co., 239 S.W.2d 178, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 1997 (Tex. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

CRAMER, Justice.

This is an appeal from an interlocutory order entered on application of appellee, after hearing. The order mandatorily commanded appellant to furnish and deliver to appellee gas from Dupuy Well No-. 1, in an amount and volume of as much as 250,000 cubic feet of gas per day, for plaintiff’s use in gas lifting, repressuring, and operating Guidroz Well No. 1; said gas to be supplied and delivered (out of the' excess above 500,000 cubic feet of gas per day supplied to United Gas Pipe Line Company under contract of the parties with said Company dated August 17, 1950) to appellee at said Dupuy Well No. 1 and to the connection, pipe line, and meter furnished by appellee at its own cost and without expense to appellant, at -prevailing price therefor at said well; and that appellee, prior to the issuance of the writ, deposit with the District Clerk $750 to secure appellant in the payment for -the gas and to further deposit .sufficient sums from time to time to keep the balance on hand at $750 above the amounts due for gas delivered; and also file a $2,000 injunction bond. Appellee complied with the order, and the mandatory writ was issued. Appellant then duly perfected this appeal.

The main cause is for damages for loss of oil and gas values resulting to appellee by reason of appellant’s refusal to- furnish gas from Dupuy Well No. 1 for use in gas lifting, repressuring, and operating Dupuy Well No. B-f and Guidroz Well No. 1, and for mandatory order, interlocutory and permanent, requiring appellant to furnish such gas.

The record discloses that the Dupuy and Guidroz leases on which the wells involved are located are situated in La Fourche Parish, Louisiana. The original base leases were each on form known as “La. 10 Special Rev. 3-43S; ‘Pooling’. Gulf Form No. 313L” and contained the usual provisions authorizing assignment of the lease in whole or in part and the ratable apportionment of rentals from such separate parcels thereby created, and that default in the payment of rentals by the owner of one parcel should not affect the rights- or obligations of the owners of other parcels of the lease. Both original leases also contained the following provisions: “ * * * 10. Lessee shall have the use, free fro-m royalty, of oil and gas produced from said land in all operations hereunder and for repressuring the oil and gas bearing formations, and -for the latter purposes such gas may be injected at any point upon the said land or any other land upon the same structure or in the same pool.”

The working interest in the Guidroz Well No. 1 situated on a segregated tract is owned solely by appellee Clifford H. Brown & Company. The working interest in Dupuy Well No. 1 situated on another segregated tract is owned one-half by appellant Hunt, one-fourth by Clifford H. Brown & Company, and one-fourth by Qifton L. Ganus, not a party to this suit, and who resides in Louisiana.

The three joint owners of Dupuy Well No. 1, on August 17, 1950, entered into a contract with. United Gas Pipe Line Company, the only gas pipe -line operating in the Raceland oil field where both wells here involved are *180 located. The terms of such, contract provided that the pipe line company was given the right and ' privilege■ of purchasing “ * * * all or any less quantities of the gas which can be produced from the land and leaseholds covered hereby * * * ” and “jointly owned by the parties seller hereto, in the Raceland field * * Such contract also contained the following provisions: “6. Buyer shall not be obligated to take natural gas or to continue taking natural gas from Seller hereunder when Seller is unable to deliver natural gas in commercial quantities (Commercial quantities being defined as an amount in excess of five hundred thousand (500,000) cubic feet per day) at a pressure sufficient to enter Buyer’s main pipe lines against working pressure therein.”

The record also shows that appellant Hunt had a l/16th of '3/16ths overriding royalty interest in the Guidroz wells and in Dupuy wells excluding the twenty acres on which Dupuy Well No. 1 was located, but with all other incidental rights thereto. Also, that appellant furnished gas from Dupuy Well No: 1 for use at Guidroz No: 1 from May 1 to July 15, 1950, but thereafter declined to do so.

Appellee made repeated demands beginning September 1, 1950, to the date of the institution of this suit, that appellant furnish said gas. All such demands were refused by appellant. The record also discloses that appellee owns the working in-. terest in well known as Dupuy Well No. B-l; that Dupuy Well B-l began producing oil and casinghead gas November 26, 1950 and that appellee has been using such gas to kick Guidroz No. 1, and that Guidroz No. 1 has been producing oil since that date.

Appellant’s first and third points' assert that by the issuance of the writ it has been denied its day in court on the primary object of appellee’s suit; and 'chariges 'the status quo of the parties. Under the record we overrule these points. The status quo of actions such as are involved here is not one of rest but of action, and appellee’s complaint is that it is the condition of rest, not of action, that will inflict the irreparable injury complained of., Courts , of equity will by preliminary order command action to continue pending a hearing on the merits under such circumstances, if the complainant is otherwise entitled thereto. Texas Pipe Line Co. v. Burton Drilling Co., Tex.Civ.App., 54 S.W.2d 190.

Appellant’s second point asserts that the mandatory injunction promotes a breach of its contract with the Pipe Line Company which has a prior right, since there was no obligation or contract by appellant to furnish gas for Guidroz Well No: 1.

This involves a construction of the provisions, of the base lease, the contracts between the parties, and the contract between appellant and the Pipe Line Company. Paragraph 10 in the two' base leases is quoted above. The contract between appellant and the Pipe Line Company in addition to the provisions above quoted applying to leasehold interest “jointly owned by the parties,” contained the following: “* * *, subject, however, to the reservation by seller of sufficient gas for the repressuring of oil producing 'horizons in the Raceland field and such other gas as seller’s lessors are entitled to use under the terms of any of seller’s leases in said field. * * *

Appellee asserts that since the trial court found that appellant had. probable right under the terms and provisions of the base leases above quoted from, that appellant as operator had deprived appel-lee of such gas for such uses to appellee’s injury and damages to the extent of about $200 per day, which will probably continue in the future and which will probably result in the loss of Guidroz Well No. 1 and a portion of the lease on which said well is located, and that such gas was not “securable in sufficient quantities from other sources by and efforts to purchase other gas from other production attempted by the plaintiff”; and that such finding had probable support in plaintiff’s verified pleadings and in the evidence that this court should affirm the judgment below.

Admitting damage to appellee: Does ■the evidence and the sworn pleadings which do not conflict with the evidence, support, *181

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Bluebook (online)
239 S.W.2d 178, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 1997, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hunt-v-clifford-h-brown-co-texapp-1951.