Leach v. Brown

353 S.W.2d 920, 16 Oil & Gas Rep. 630, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2171
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 10, 1962
Docket13832
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 353 S.W.2d 920 (Leach v. Brown) 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
Leach v. Brown, 353 S.W.2d 920, 16 Oil & Gas Rep. 630, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2171 (Tex. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

MURRAY, Chief Justice.

This is the fourth time this cause has-been before us. Our opinion on the first appeal is found in Tex.Civ.App., 251 S.W.2d 553, styled Leach v. Brown et al., opinion dated October 15, 1952, writ refused. In that suit Edmonia Tenberg Leach sought to recover the sum of $4,910.51, alleged to-be due her as royalty under the provisions, of an oil, gas and mineral lease executed by her on July 10, 1944, covering a one-half interest in 177 acres of land, a part of' the James Johnson Survey in Karnes County, Texas. She further alleged that her interest in the 177 acres, known as “The-Tenberg Lease,” had been invalidly- pooled or unitized with other leases in the Burnell Field, and that she was entitled to 7/16 of 1/8 of the royalty from her land, and that-the other lease and royalty owners in the-Burnell Field had no interest in the 7/16-of the 1/8 of the royalty. Mrs. Leach sued only for money alleged to be due her, but she could not recover unless her interest- *921 ■in the 177 acres of land was freed from the unitization agreement.

The trial court held that the other lease and royalty owners in the Burnell Field were indispensable parties to the suit, and upon Mrs. Leach’s refusal to amend, dismissed her suit, and on appeal this Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court. The Supreme Court refused to grant a writ of error, and thus this judgment of dismissal became final.

Thereafter, on August 7, 1953, Mrs. Leach filed a pleading under the same title and number as the original suit, and styled such pleading as “Plaintiff’s First Amended Original Petition.” The trial court sustained pleas of abatement to that petition and again dismissed the cause, and Mrs. Leach again appealed to this Court. In an opinion styled Leach v. Brown et al., Tex.Civ.App., 287 S.W.2d 304, a majority of this Court decided that this appeal was from an attempt to file an amended pleading in a disposed of cause and ordered the appeal dismissed. Justice Norvell filed a dissenting opinion expressing the belief that the petition was improperly described .as an amended petition, and improperly given the number of the old cause, but was sufficient to constitute the filing of a new suit. The Supreme Court granted a writ of error and agreed with Justice Norvell’s dissenting opinion, and in an opinion reported in 156 Tex. 66, 292 S.W.2d 329, styled Leach v. Brown, reversed our majority decision and remanded the cause to this Court for the purpose of passing upon other questions raised in the appeal.

This Court in Leach v. Brown, Tex.Civ.App., 298 S.W.2d 185, decided that this new suit, filed August 7, 1953, was such a suit as might be filed as a class suit, and reversed the judgment of dismissal and remanded the cause to the trial court.

This new suit is essentially the same suit as Mrs. Leach’s original suit. She is still suing for the purpose of trying to free her one-half interest in the 177 acres known as the “Tenberg Lease”, and from the Burnell Unitization Agreement executed on February 22, 1949, and recorded in both Bee and Karnes Counties on February 24, 1949. Thus this new suit was filed four years, five months and thirteen days after the Unitization Agreement was filed for record, but due to her coverture was not barred by the four-year statute of limitation. Article 5529, Vernon’s Tex.Civ. Stats.

Thereafter the cause proceeded in the trial court as a class suit, the necessary parties of the various classes having been made parties. Both sides made motions for summary judgment. Appellant’s motion was as to liability only, while appellees’ motion was on the whole case. Appellant’s motion was overruled, but appellees’ was granted. The plaintiff below, Edmonia Tenberg Leach, has prosecuted this appeal.

The principal points raised by appellant in this appeal turn upon the interpretation or construction to be given paragraphs 4 and 12 contained in the oil and gas lease executed by Mrs. Tenberg, a feme sole, as lessor, to M. H. Marr and Herman. Brown, in equal proportions as lessees, covering an undivided one-half interest in a tract of land located in Karnes County, containing 177 acres, more or less, and now known as the “Tenberg Lease”. This lease was signed and acknowledged by Mrs. Ten-berg on June 10, 1944, and recorded in the Deed Records of Karnes County, Texas, on June 12,1944.

Paragraph 4, which is a part of a printed form used by the parties, reads as follows:

“4. Lessee, at its option, is hereby given the right and power to pool or combine the acreage covered by this lease or any portion thereof with other land, lease or leases in the immediate vicinity thereof, when in Lessee’s judgment it is necessary or advisable to do so in order properly to develop and operate said premises in compliance with the spacing rules of the Railroad Commission of Texas or other lawful authority, or when to do so would, in the *922 judgment of Lessee, promote the conservation of the oil and gas in and under and that may be produced from said premises, such pooling to be into a unit or units not exceeding 40 acres each. Lessee shall execute in writing an instrument identifying and describing the pooled acreage. The entire acreage so pooled into a tract or unit shall be treated, for all purposes except the payment of royalties on production from the pooled unit, as if it were included in this lease. If production is found on the pooled acreage, it shall be treated as if production is had from this lease, whether the well or wells be located on the premises covered by this lease or not. In lieu of the royalties elsewhere herein specified, Lessor shall receive on production from a unit so pooled only such portion of the royalty stipulated herein as the amount of his acreage placed in the unit or his royalty interest therein on an acreage basis bears to the total acreage so pooled in the particular unit involved.”

Paragraph 12, which was a typed-in paragraph, reads as follows:

“12. Lessee shall have the continuing and recurring right as to all or any part of the land covered hereby to pool and/or combine and/or unitize the leasehold estate and the royalty estate created hereby as to the gas and condensate and all other hydrocarbons contained in said gas with similar estates in other lands so as to form, by such combinations, a unit or units embracing all or part of the land overlying the producing reservoir or reservoirs for the production of gas and condensate and all other hydrocarbons contained in the gas by ordinary production methods or through a cycling plant or plants; and in the event such unit is formed, lessors shall receive as royalty from the unit production of gas and condensate and all other hydrocarbons contained in the gas and extracted therefrom, the proportionate part of the royalties herein provided for.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
353 S.W.2d 920, 16 Oil & Gas Rep. 630, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2171, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leach-v-brown-texapp-1962.