Knox v. Maurer-Krebs Oil Co.

171 S.W.2d 544, 1943 Tex. App. LEXIS 362
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 9, 1943
DocketNo. 2349
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 171 S.W.2d 544 (Knox v. Maurer-Krebs Oil 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
Knox v. Maurer-Krebs Oil Co., 171 S.W.2d 544, 1943 Tex. App. LEXIS 362 (Tex. Ct. App. 1943).

Opinion

LESLIE, Chief Justice.

C. C. Ledford and Dee Barr, partners, filed this suit March 18, 1942, against Maurer-Krebs Oil Company, an Arizona corporation, to recover $6,850 alleged to be due them for materials furnished and labor performed in drilling and developing an oil well and to foreclose an alleged statutory lien in their favor on “the lease and equipment.” They alleged the equipment embraced an oil well pump, its accessories and pumping rods. This part of the equipment will be spoken of as the pump or pumping unit, which was apparently in possession of a receiver of the company at the time the appellee, Valley National Bank, filed its plea of intervention and sought to recover possession of the pump.

At a trial before the court without a jury, judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiffs against the Maurer-Krebs Oil Company for the indebtedness of $6,850 and declaring a lien in their favor upon the lease and equipment (subject to the material-man’s liens of J. A. Rapp and Zero Hour Bomb Company)-, excepting, however, the pumping unit which the court ordered turned over to the intervenor, Valley National Bank, under the terms of a chattel mortgage which the Bank alleged gave it a prior right to the possession of the same.

The receiver, Knox, and plaintiffs, Led-ford and Barr, resisted the Bank’s claim and they and two other intervenors appeal.

Knox was appointed receiver for the Oil Company after it became insolvent (about June 4, 1941) and as receiver intervened, excepting to the Bank’s plea in intervention and challenged sufficiency of the chattel mortgage to create a lien on the ground of insufficient description of property, defective acknowledgment, not filed “forthwith”, etc.

J. A. Rapp intervened, claiming an indebtedness of $337.50 for shooting the well under a contract with plaintiffs, Ledford and Barr, and which indebtedness he alleged was secured by a statutory lien on the “property * * * belonging to Maurer-Krebs Oil Company on said land * *

The Zero Hour Bomb Company intervened, claiming an indebtedness of $107 for material for shooting the well furnished by it under a contract with plaintiffs.

In substance this litigation grows out of the following facts:

The Oil Company, owning a 20 acre oil and gas lease out of A. J. Jackson lands, Eastland County, contracted with plaintiffs to drill an oil well thereon and agreed to compensate them on a pay-as-you-go basis. As drilling proceeded, the Company was unable to meet the accrued expenses ($1,-592) and negotiations between plaintiffs and the Company resulted in a new contract of May 30, 1941, by which the Company agreed that if plaintiffs would finish the well, furnish certain equipment,' shoot the well, and superintend the production, the Company would pay them $6,850. To secure payment of such sum, the Company assigned to plaintiffs all oil runs until said sum was paid, at which time plaintiffs were “to execute * * * re-assignment or release of this assignment * * * ” to Maurer-Krebs Oil Company.

As part of that contract the Company agreed that at proper time it would install a pump on the well and furnish pumper or caretaker. The well was finished and shot by plaintiffs, making a small well. Plaintiffs notified the Company the well would have to be pumped and urged installation of pumping equipment as soon as possible because water was coming into the well and would destroy it. Some delay intervened before the installation of the pump under the circumstances hereinafter detailed.

Soon after the filing of this suit against the Maurer-Krebs Oil Company, the Valley National Bank of Arizona, appellee herein, intervened, seeking to recover possession of the pumping unit. Its plea of intervention was on the ground that it held a prior chattel mortgage lien against the pump in that on August 30, 1941, it loaned Dudley T. Fournier, G. H. Lawrence and John M. Kellogg, $1,571.25, evidenced by a [546]*546monthly installment note secured by said chattel mortgage. The note and mortgage provided that in case of default in payment of any installment the holder thereof was authorized to accelerate all installments and take possession of the pump and sell same at public or private sale, with or without notice. Default in payment of note having occurred, the Bank declared the whole obligation due and demanded possession of pump from the Receiver, who refused to surrender same. The appellee Bank contends that in its transaction with Fournier, Lawrence and Kellogg, they were acting as individuals and not in any representative or official capacity for the Maurer-Krebs Oil Company, and that they were so acting in a subsequent arrangement (9-4-41) in which they (through their agent, Tribolet) leased said pump to the Maurer-Krebs Company for the purpose of pumping the well.

In substance, the plaintiffs’ theory of the case is that the “lease and its equipment” (embracing pump) belonged to said Maurer-Krebs Oil Company and was, therefore, subject to a statutory lien in their favor for labor, materials, etc., performed and furnished by them in the drilling and completion of said well.

Stated somewhat differently, appellants’ main contention seems to be that since Maurer-Krebs Oil Company contracted to furnish and install the pumping equipment on said well for the plaintiffs’ use in the operation of the lease “and the Executive Vice-President, A. A. Tribolet, acting as the company’s general agent in Texas, having bought, paid for and installed said pumping equipment on said pumping equipment on said lease pursuant to said contract on August 29, 1941, the plaintiffs (Appellants) had a lien on the lease and all the equipment thereon for what was due them under said contract, superior to any chattel mortgage lien made thereon after that by anyone without plaintiffs’ knowledge or consent.”

The facts and circumstances on which the appellee Bank bases its claim of prior right of possession of the pump, will now be stated more in detail. The Maurer-. Krebs Company being insolvent and unable to furnish a pump for the well, as found by the trial court, a pump was procured by certain individuals in the following manner:

That the Syntex Supply Company of Breckenridge, Texas, sold and delivered said pump to Tribolet by a bill of sale (8-27-41) and invoice (8-26-41) and received in payment therefor a draft (8-27-41) for $1,510 drawn on the Valley National Bank, payable to the order of said Supply Company.

That on September 4, 1941, Tribolet leased the pump to Maurer-Krebs Oil Company (of which he was Vice-President) for a period beginning August 30, 1941, and ending December 30, 1942. That said instrument provided that the expense of maintenance and caretaker were to be borne by the Company, which in turn obligated itself to pay for the use of the pump a consideration of $1,600, payable $100 per month beginning September 30, etc. The instrument recited the pump was then located on the Jackson lease, well No. 1, Eastland County, and was to be later returned, etc., to first party.'

On the same date (September 4th) Tribolet by indorsement on the lease assigned all his rights thereunder to said Dudley T. Fournier, G. H. Lawrence and John M. Kellogg, stockholders and directors in said Oil Company. Tribolet, according to the findings of the trial court, had no personal interest in the transactions herein, but was in each instance acting as agent for the three named persons “executing the note” etc.

On the same date, September 4th, Tribo-let also executed a formal bill of sale to the pump to said three parties.

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Related

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575 S.W.2d 661 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1978)

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171 S.W.2d 544, 1943 Tex. App. LEXIS 362, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knox-v-maurer-krebs-oil-co-texapp-1943.