Mee v. Corporation Commission

1956 OK 40, 293 P.2d 593, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 375, 1956 WL 89687
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 7, 1956
Docket36609, 36736
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1956 OK 40 (Mee v. Corporation Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mee v. Corporation Commission, 1956 OK 40, 293 P.2d 593, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 375, 1956 WL 89687 (Okla. 1956).

Opinion

FI ALLEY, Justice.

This is an appeal by C. H. Mee from certain orders of the Corporation Commission and a “Cross-Petition in Error” filed by William Broadhurst and others. We shall refer to the parties as Mee and Broad-hurst.

In 1953, Mee secured an order from the Corporation Commission fixing a drilling and spacing unit of 160 acres covering Section 26 and the NE/4 of Section 25-14N-3W, Lincoln County, Oklahoma, for the production of gas from the lower Skinner Sand Zone. He alleged that he had drilled a producing gas well in the SW/4 NW/4 SE/4 of Section 26. He asked for and secured an exception to the well spacing order of one well in or near the center of each 160 acre unit in favor of his well known as the Harold No. 1, located in the SW/4 NW/4 SE/4 of Section 26. Shortly after this order of December 3, 1953, Mee permitted his lease covering the SW/4 of 26 to lapse.

April 20, 1954, Broadhurst applied to the Commission for an order allowing an exception to the order granted to Mee and prayed that he be permitted to drill a well in the center of the SE/4 NE/4 SW/4 of Section 26, being a direct offset to Mee’s Harold No. 1. Order No. 28731 was entered June 11, 1954, allowing the exception as to location of well as prayed for by Broadhurst and also fixing an acreage factor of 320 acres as an exception to the order previously entered fixing a well drilling unit of 160 acres.

Mee filed a motion for rehearing and modification of this order which was denied by the Commission June 29, 1954, by Order No. 28842, and Mee gave notice of appeal.

October 7, 1954, the Commission entered Order No. 29240, allowing Broadhurst to produce a full allowable from his well in the SE/4 NE/4 SW/4 of Section 26, and declined to penalize No. 1 Harold belonging to Mee for alleged overproduction, but allowed a full production of allowable from the SE/4 of Section 26, on which the Mee well was located. Broadhurst then filed a motion for rehearing because Order No. 29240 failed to penalize the No. 1 Harold drilled by Mee in 1953, alleging that this well had overproduced 154,708 MCF, of gas above its fair share of gas from the common source of supply. Mee also appealed from Order No. 29240, and this appeal was consolidated with his appeal from the two former orders of the Commission.

*595 September 7, 1954, Broadhurst announced that he had abandoned all claim to leases on the NW/4 of Section 26. He had drilled a well in the center of the SE/4 NE/4 SW/4 of Section 26, which was productive of gas from the Skinner Sand.

After Mee perfected his appeal by filing a petition in error, and transcript of the record in this court on December 3, 1954, Broadhurst filed a cross-petition in error on December 11, 1954, more than 60 days after the order of the Commission appealed from which was entered October 7, 1954, being Order No. 29240. Broadhurst gave no notice of intention to appeal in open court and did not attach to his cross-petition in error a transcript of the record or case-made.

Mee has moved that the purported cross-appeal .of Broadhurst be dismissed. Most of the statutory and constitutional provisions cited in support of this motion to dismiss are only applicable to appeals from courts, or relate to public service and utility corporations. In the case óf City of Sapulpa v. Young, supra, this court held that after an appeal has been perfected and lodged in this court it is not required that a party desiring to file a cross-appeal attach to his cross-petition in error a transcript or case-made, nor to give notice of his intention to appeal in open court. The perfection of the appeal by plaintiff in error makes all other parties who appeared parties to the appeal.

Mee filed a motion for new trial with the Commission in this case. It was overruled and he perfected his appeal within 60 days from the date of the order appealed from. Within four days after the expiration of the 60 day period provided in Section 113, supra, Broadhurst filed in this Court his cross-petition in error, and his motion for a new trial filed with the Commission was still pending.

While such motions are not expressly provided for, we take notice that, for many years the Commission has permitted them. In the case of In re Moran, 201 Okl. 43, 200 P.2d 758, 760, this Court granted an appellant time beyond 60 days in which to file his appeal in this Court. It was said in the body of the opinion that:

“Appeals from the Corporation Commission usually involve matters of public interest, and the fixed rules applied in cases of ordinary civil appeals from judgments of the courts should not be applied to such appeals. ifc * ⅛ »

Since no relief is granted under cross-petition of Broadhurst the error, if any, in failing to dismiss it is harmless error. Goodall v. City of Clinton, 196 Okl. 10, 161 P.2d 1011. This cross-appeal was only from that part of the order of the Commission refusing to penalize the Mee No. 1 Harold for overproduction.

The rule is well established that if an order of the Corporation Commission appealed from is found to be supported by substantial evidence, it will be affirmed by this Court. The rule is clearly stated in Woody v. State Corporation Commission, Okl., 265 P.2d 1102, 1106, wherein it is stated in the body of the opinion:

“ * * * In the orderly administration of law we must indulge the presumption that the Commission’s order is just, reasonable, and correct. * * *
“Our appellate jurisdiction, as applied to the case before us, is judicial only, and is limited to a consideration whether the Commission has legally pursued its authority, and whether its findings and conclusions are sustained by the law and substantial evidence. Art. IX, § 20, Constitution of the State of Oklahoma. Under this mandate an order of the Commission when appealed to this court will be affirmed if it is supported by substantial evidence. Spires v. Magnolia Petroleum Co., 206 Okl. 503, 244 P.2d 843. Neither are we required to weigh and measure the evidence in an endeavor to determine its preponderance. Our duty ends with, a finding that there is evidence of a probative value reasonably and substantially sustaining the Commission’s findings and order. Yellow *596 Transit Co. v. State, 198 Okl. 229, 178 P.2d 83.”

We have examined all of the evidence introduced at the various hearings before the Commission, including the testimony of expert geologists, practical oil and gas operators and those interested in the minerals in the west half of Section 26 and find that there is substantial evidence that unless a well is allowed on the west .half of this Section, the No. 1 Harold of Mee in the SE/4 of this Section will eventually drain' all of the gas from the entire Skinner Sand formation,, and that the location allowed to Broadhurst in the SE/4 NE/4 SW/4 of Section 26 will probably produce all of the gas available from this sand under the west half of Section 26.

The evidence shows that Broadhurst has lost his leases covering the NW/4 of 'Section 26, and has only the SW/4 on which his well is located.

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Bluebook (online)
1956 OK 40, 293 P.2d 593, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 375, 1956 WL 89687, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mee-v-corporation-commission-okla-1956.