Pluto Oil & Gas Co. v. Land

1931 OK 504, 2 P.2d 945, 151 Okla. 117, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 558
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 8, 1931
Docket18397
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1931 OK 504 (Pluto Oil & Gas Co. v. Land) 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
Pluto Oil & Gas Co. v. Land, 1931 OK 504, 2 P.2d 945, 151 Okla. 117, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 558 (Okla. 1931).

Opinion

KORNEGAY, J.

This cause comes from the district court of Creek county, Honorable -Fred A Speakman being judge. The *118 case started by the filing of a petition in the district court of Creek county by Safina Land and Joseph H. Land against the Pluto Oil & Gas Company and the Gulf Pipe Line Company of Oklahoma on the 27th day of September, 1921. The petition sought to recover the oil that was extracted from the lands of the minor sor^ of the plaintiffs, Alvin G. Land, who was. a three-quarter Creek Indian by blood, and who died on the 10th day of October, 1918, leaving surviving as his heirs his father, Joseph H. Land, and his mother, Salina Land, the father being a half-breed Creek Indian and the mother a full-blood.

There was an allegation to the effect that no administration proceedings had ever been had on his estate, and that the debts and charges of every kind and nature against the estate had been paid in full. There was an allegation that in the year 1909, the defendants entered on the lands of the minor son, Alvin G. Land, to wit, the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 12, township 18 north, range 11 east, without any authority of law save and except that, on or about the 3rd of November, 1913, Phil J. Lenhard, acting as guardian for the said Alvin G. Land, deceased, executed and delivered to the Pluto Oil & Gas Company an oil and gas lease, which was alleged to be void in the petition by reason of its not having been approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and it was further alleged that it was not intended to be so approved.

It was further charged that during the lifetime of Alvin G. Land, the taking away of the oil and gas out of the land was unlawful, and since the death of Alvin G. Land, it had been taking the oil and gas without any lawful right. It was alleged that $75,-000 was the value, and an accounting was asked for as to the amount of oil and gas that was taken. There was a further allegation that they were entitled to the highest market value, and there was a prayer for an accounting, and if it was done, for judgment. There was likewise a prayer that the defendants be required to set forth and exhibit any and all muniments of title giving them the right to possession or the right to extract the oil and gas. The petition was signed by MeDougal, Lytle, Allen & Pryor as attorneys for the plaintiffs, and was indorsed “Lien Claimed.”

The lease attacked was set out. It was approved by the county judge of Creek county, Okla. An answer was filed by the Gulf Pipe Line Company consisting of a general denial and claim that on the 6th day of May, 1908, Joseph H. Land, one of the plaintiffs, being the guardian of the estate of Alvin G. Land, executed to J. A. Boyd an oil ana gas lease on the 40 acres of land, and the lease was in turn assigned to the Pluto Oil & Gas Company, and that prior, to the month of August, 1911, the Pluto Oil & Gas Company entered into possession of the land and produced oil therefrom, and that from the month of August, 1911, oil was run and sold by the Pluto Oil & Gas Company to the defendant Gulf Pipe Line Company, a common purchaser of the Pluto Oil & Gas Company, engaged in that purchase in the state of Oklahoma, and that it was in duty boand to purchase such oil as being such common purchaser under the law, and it had bought the oil without any knowledge of any claim or right of the plaintiffs thereto.

Pluto Oil & Gas Company demurred and its demurrer was overruled, the ground of the demurrer being no cause of action, and the cause of action being barred by the statute of limitation. The demurrer was over ruled and followed by exceptions. It then filed an answer consisting of a general denial and relying on a lease for oil and gas purposes made on the 6th of May, 1908, by the guardian of Alvin G. Land, executed to J. A. Boyd, which had been assigned to the Pluto Oil & Gas Company, and before August 11, 1911, and the fact that it entered upon the ground and put down wells and produced oil, and relied on the three-year statute of limitations, and also upon the two-year statute, and said that all the matters and things complained of were barred so far as Joseph H. Land was concerned.

There was a further claim that, in the year 1919, the Pluto Oil & Gas Company had entered into a contract with Safina Lund and Joseph H. Land for' a departmental oil and gas lease on the property, and had agreed to pay $5,000 bonus on the condition of its being finally adjudged to be valid, and that it did pay $5,000, but that in the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, in the case of Pluto Oil & Gas Company, Plaintiff in Error, v. H. C. Miller, Defendant in Error (93 Okla. 222, 219 Pac. 303) it was adjudged that Miller was the owner of the oil and gas mining rights. There was a further pleading that it was represented to the Pluto Oil & Gas Company that the lease purporting to have been made by the plaintiff below to II. C. Miller was procured by fraud and that in order to get the $'5,000 the plaintiffs agreed to prosecute proper actions to establish the defendant’s right to the oil and gas mining rights in the land, but that as soon as they *119 received the money they dismissed the claim., It asked for a judgment of $5,000 against Salina Land and Joseph H. Land, with interest at 6 per cent, from August, 1919. This answer was signed by H. B. Martin as attorney.

Reply was made to this denying the owing of • the $5,000. There was an amended answer of the Gulf Pipe Line Company consisting of a general denial and setting up the lease on the land made by the plaintiff Joseph H. Land, as guardian for Alvin G. Land. It further set up the fact of the proceedings in the county court to correct the misdescription of the land so that the N. E. % of the S. W. % should read the S. E. % of the S. W. %. Also, the action of the district court in correcting this error in the suit brought by the defendant against the guardian and the minor, resulting in a judgment of correction entered in the district court of Creek county, Okla. There was a claim also of being a common purchaser under the law, and of the Pluto Oil & Gas Company being in possession and having produced the oil, and the Gulf Pipe Line Company having bought it as such common purchaser.

There was a further claim that the royalties had been received by Joseph H. Land, the guardian, in the amount of $1,087.48, from August, 1911, to March 5, 1912, and a payment to Phil J. Lenhard of $2,645.84 as guardian, from March 16, 1912, to May 10, 1915, inclusive, and to J. E. Faught, guardian of Alvin G. Land, $2,781.44, from June 1, 1915, to October 31, 1918, inclusive. There was a further statement that these royalties became a part of the estate of Alvin G. Land, and that on the death of Alvin G. Land, the plaintiffs received this money as heirs of Alvih G. Land from the last guardian, less the monies that had been expended under orders of the county court. It further stated that in buying this oil and gas. it bought it without any knowledge that Alvin G. Land, or any one for him, was claiming the seven-eighths part that was paid to the Pluto Oil & Gas Company. There was a further plea that Salina Land and Joseph H. Land each ratified, confirmed, and adopted the lease of May 6, 1908, and were estopped from questioning the right of the Pluto Oil & Gas Company to operate the premises for oil and gas, and also the right of the defendant to purchase the oil.

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Bluebook (online)
1931 OK 504, 2 P.2d 945, 151 Okla. 117, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 558, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pluto-oil-gas-co-v-land-okla-1931.