Luling Oil & Gas Co. v. Humble Oil & Refining Co.

191 S.W.2d 716, 144 Tex. 475, 1945 Tex. LEXIS 185
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 29, 1945
DocketNo. A-576.
StatusPublished
Cited by142 cases

This text of 191 S.W.2d 716 (Luling Oil & Gas Co. v. Humble Oil & Refining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Luling Oil & Gas Co. v. Humble Oil & Refining Co., 191 S.W.2d 716, 144 Tex. 475, 1945 Tex. LEXIS 185 (Tex. 1945).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Slatton

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Luling Oil & Gas Company entered into a contract with Humble Oil & Refining Company on the 30th day of July, 1928, wherein Luling obligated itself to sell to Humble an undivided one-half interest in and to certain oil and gas leases covering land situated in Caldwell County, Texas. The consideration for the contract was $100.00 per acre and the agreement of Humble to drill one well on the premises at its own cost and expense. The contract gave Humble exclusive charge and control of all operations. All expenses of drilling, developing, operating and equipping said property after the completion of said first well, as well as all expenses of treating, handling, and marketing the oil and gas was to be charged to the joint account. Luling was not liable for its one-half of operating expenses, but Luling’s part of such expenses was to be borne by and paid out of its one-half interest in production. The contract contains provisions with reference to charges to be made in the operation of the property between the corporations. The Humble, according to the contract, was to keep accurate records of all joint accounts showing the cost and expenses incurred and charges made and all credits made and received. The contract further provides:

“Within one month after the close of each calendar month Second Party (Humble) shall furnish to First Party (Luling) a statement of investment and expenses incurred and credits *478 and receipts during such calendar month. Any exceptions to the statement as rendered by Second Party must be made by First Party (Ruling) within forty-five days after the receipt of same; and if no exception is made within such time, then such statement shall be conclusively considered as correct. If such statement is incorrect First Party shall be credited for any excess payment made and shall be debited by any excess credit allowed. The provisions of this paragraph, however, shall not prevent annual adjustment of physical property to inventory as above provided.”

The contract further provides:

“All proceeds received from the sale of oil and gas produced and saved from the said premises and pertaining to the working interest shall be first credited to joint account; and if any excess remains after the payment of all charges to joint account then accrued, Second Party shall pay the First Party its one-half of the sums remaining.”

The contract further provided that Humble, if it' desired, had the right to take over such products and to pay for the same as follows:

“(a) For Ruling’s interest in oil the average prevailing current posted field price per barrel on the date of respective runs to pipe lines of Magnolia Petroleum Company, The Texas Company, Gulf Refining Company and Humble Oil & Refining Company, and such companies as may be purchasing oil in the field where said premises are located and posting prices therefor.

“Humble shall have the right at any time to transfer its one-half undivided interest in any particular lease or leases affected hereby to Ruling and thereafter as to any such lease or leases be relieved from any further liability hereunder or under the terms of such leases.”

The contract further provided for a preferential right of either party to buy the interest of the other, providing it was willing to pay for such interest at a price which was offered therefor by another in good faith. The Humble drilled and brought into production some sixty-odd wells, a number of which were in production at the time of the trial of this lawsuit in 1942. This suit was filed on the 18th day of November, 1940, in the district court of Harris County. Ruling Oil & Gas *479 Company sought a recovery of a large sum of money from Humble Oil & Refining Company alleged to be due because of the Humble’s failure to properly account for oil produced and to properly charge expenses in the production and sale of . oil which was found under leases owned by both corporations.

The trial court submitted seven special issues to the jury. The trial court entered judgment on the verdict and in part notwithstanding the verdict. The judgment was in favor of Luling Oil & Gas Company for the sum of $127,827.30.

Humble Oil & Refining Company appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals at Galveston and Luling filed cross assignments of error. The Honorable Court of Civil Appeals at Galveston affirmed the judgment of the trial court on all issues determined by the trial court in Humble’s favor of which no complaint was made in the Court of Appeals by Luling; reversed and rendered the judgment of the trial court to the extent of $73,260.45 because the same was barred by the four year statute of limitation, and allowed the judgment of $2,690.47 to stand in favor of Luling because not shown to have been barred by the four year statute of limitation; overruled Luling’s cross assignments of error and affirmed the judgment of the lower court thereon. The court remanded the cause to the trial court for another trial upon the issues or claims of (a) nrofit made by Humble on fresh water; (b) profit made by Humble on manufacturer’s profit on breaxit and lubricating oil; (c) profit on trucks and tractors; and (d) profit on transporting secondhand material. (Opinion not published) Since Humble made no application for a writ of error, we are concerned only with the points of error assigned by Luling.

Luling complains of the ruling of the Court of Civil Appeals to the effect that all amounts sued for which became due more than four years prior to the filing of this suit are barred by the four year statute of limitation. Its contentions are urged through four points of error, viz:

1. That the contract under which the rights of the litigants arose creates a joint adventure or mining partnership, therefore Section 3 of Article 5527, Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, 1925, is applicable. Hence limitation does not commence to run against a cause of action for a general accounting until cessation of the business of the mining partnership.

2. That the Humble cannot avoid the effect of Section 3 of Article 5527 on the theory that the acts of the corporations in *480 entering into a joint adventure or mining partnership were ultra vires.

3. Because it was within the respective corporate powers and purposes of the corporations to explore, develop and produce oil and gas as was done under the contract involved.

4. The claims were not barred by the four year statute of limitation for the reason that the exclusive control of operations and bookkeeping assumed under the contract by the Humble constituted it a trustee for the Ruling, and there being no repudiation of the trust the bar of the statute cannot be invoked.

5. Under the evidence the Humble as trustee of an express trust refused to disclose secret profits to Ruling until after this suit was filed, hence Humble cannot invoke the four year statute of limitátion.

Humble contends that Section 3 of Article 5527 has no application to the facts of this case, but rather that the cause of action asserted by Ruling is founded upon a contract in writing, therefore the four year statute is applicable.

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Bluebook (online)
191 S.W.2d 716, 144 Tex. 475, 1945 Tex. LEXIS 185, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/luling-oil-gas-co-v-humble-oil-refining-co-tex-1945.