Railroad Commission v. Royal Petroleum Corp.

93 S.W.2d 761, 1936 Tex. App. LEXIS 372, 1936 WL 65057
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 9, 1936
DocketNo. 4547.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 93 S.W.2d 761 (Railroad Commission v. Royal Petroleum Corp.) 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
Railroad Commission v. Royal Petroleum Corp., 93 S.W.2d 761, 1936 Tex. App. LEXIS 372, 1936 WL 65057 (Tex. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

HALL, Chief Justice.

The appellee corporation sued the Railroad Commission and other parties (such other parties being later dismissed) in the nature of an appeal from an order of the Railroad Commission refusing appellee a permit to drill well No. 2 on a tract of 4.06 acres in the Juan Ximines survey in Rusk county.

It alleged that in 1930 it purchased a leasehold interest covering 5 acres of land, but because of an. outstanding one-sixth undivided interest, appellee was required to release .87 acre.to the outstanding one-sixth owner, leaving s.ppellee the owner of 4.06 acres. That it had originally endeavored to obtain consent of adjoining lease owners for the drilling of one well in the center of its tract, but failed. It alleged that it already had one producing well on the leasehold interest, and that on the 30th day of August, 1934, it applied for a permit to drill well No. 2 on said tract, and appeared before the Railroad Commission on the day set for the hearing, and thereafter an order was entered denying it permission to drill said well. That it was originally granted a permit to drill a well in the center of the tract, but on account of an offset well being drilled within approximately 100 feet of its east line, that permit was changed and it drilled its well No. 1 at a point equidistant to the offset on the east which was approximately 96 feet. That appellee then applied for a permit to drill at the original location, which was in the center of its tract, and an equidistant offset to the Miller Production Company well No. 7. This permit was denied, and by the same order the previous permit No. 1 was canceled.

The purpose of this suit was to enjoin the Railroad Commission from interfering in any way with appellee’s drilling of the well at the location stated in the application. It alleged that .the Miller Production Company had an .offset well No. 7 west of its line within 249.5 feet of its west line, and well up to the north, known as the Ortiz Oil Company well, located approximately 16.2 feet from its north line; that the Trice Oil Company had an offset well to its well No. 1 located approximately 9.5 feet to the east, and the Sun Oil Company well No. 14, located 290 feet to the south, and Sun Oil Company well No. 7, located 329.5 feet to the southwest. That the action of' the Railroad Commission in refusing said permit to drill in the center of the tract was arbitrary, unjust, and unreasonable, and amounted to a confiscation of a portion of the oil, gas, and minerals underlying appellee’s tract.

The case was tried to the court without a jury, and resulted in a judgment in favor of appellee, Royal Petroleum Corporation, enjoining the Railroad Commis *763 sion and the Sun Oil Company, which had intervened, from in any manner interfering with the drilling of a well - for oil and gas by appellants, or either of them, at a point 249.5 feet east of the west line of its tract, and that such well if drilled would be a direct and equidistant offset to the Miller Production Company well No. 7.

There was testimony that if appellee was denied the right to drill this second well, such denial would cause confiscation of its property and drainage thereof to the extent of some 25 to 30 per cent of its oil, gas, and minerals.

Plaintiff’s amended petition, on which it went to trial, reads in part as follows: ■“Now comes Royal Petroleum Corporation, plaintiff herein, leave of court first had and obtained, complaining of the Railroad Commission of Texas, and Lon A. Smith, C. V. Terrell and Ernest O. Thompson, each in their capacity as members of the Railroad Commission of Texas, defendants herein, and for cause of action would respectfully show to the court * * *»

It is contended by the first two propositions that because the plaintiff’s peti-tition does not allege that the Royal Petroleum Corporation is an individual acting under a trade-name, and doe? not allege that such is either a partnership, a corporation, or any other type of legal entity, the petition does not name a party plaintiff, and no issue can be joined thereunder, and that the judgment was erroneously rendered because the plain-iff failed to show that it was a legal entity and capable in law of maintaining a suit.

The defendants and intervener filed general demurrers and special exceptions, but they were not presented to the court.

It is said in Southern Casualty Co. v. Morgan (Tex.Com.App.) 16 S.W.(2d) 533: “General demurrer was pleaded, but it was not presented and given disposition. Hence, if was waived. Indiana & Ohio Live Stock Co. v. Smith (Tex.Civ.App.) 157 S.W. 755, and cases therein cited. The question (of insufficiency of the petition) is raised after verdict and judgment, and, so, at a time when all that is possible must be presumed in aid of the pleading (See Schuster v. Frendenthal, 74 Tex. 53, 11 S.W. 1051) and at a time when the answer may help the petition (See Pope v. Kansas City, M. & O. Ry. Co., 109 Tex. 311, 322, 207 S.W. 514).”

The petition, we think, is sufficient, even if the general demurrer had been urged. We must indulge every reasonable intendment in favor of its sufficiency, and it would be an unreasonable assumption to hold that an individual or a partnership was doing business under the name of a corporation. Grand Lodge, Colored Knights of Pythias v. Rhodes (Tex.Civ.App.) 72 S.W. (2d) 1106; Employers’ Liability Assurance Corporation v. Neely (Tex.Civ.App.) 60 S.W.(2d) 836; Lone Star Finance Corporation v. Davis (Tex.Civ.App.) 77 S.W.(2d) 711; Nelson v. Brenham Compress Oil & Mfg. Co. (Tex.Civ.App.) 51 S.W. 514.

The third and fourth propositions submitted together present the contention that because the plaintiff’s pleadings on an appeal from an order of the Railroad Commission complains only of .the portion of the order denying the permit to drill well No. 2, and makes no reference to the remaining portion of the order which cancels an abandoned permit to drill well No. 1, the court erred in rendering a judgment overruling a portion of the order canceling said abandoned permit; that such action is error for the further reason that the prayer in plaintiff’s petition asked for no such action with reference to the abandoned permit No. 1.

It is an elemental rule that the judgment must be supported by the pleading and prayer, as well' as by the evidence, and the court can grant no relief unless specially prayed for, except in certain limited cases where such relief would be allowable under the prayer for general relief. We assent to this contention, which is sustained by an innumerable number of cases, among them being Baria v. Taylor (Tex.Civ.App.) 57 S.W.(2d) 858; Norris v. Stoneham (Tex.Civ.App.) 46 S.W.(2d) 363; Jennings v. Texas Farm Mortgage Co. (Tex.Civ.App.) 52 S.W.(2d) 272; Id., 124 Tex. 593, 80 S.W.(2d) 931; Perkins v. Campbell (Tex.Civ.App.) 63 S.W.(2d) 567; Bevers v. Hughes (Tex.Civ.App.) 195 S.W. 651.

By the fifth and sixth propositions contention is made that because the plaintiff did not allege what facts were presented to the commission, and what facts the commission had before it as a basis for its order, the pleading was insufficient to *764

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93 S.W.2d 761, 1936 Tex. App. LEXIS 372, 1936 WL 65057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/railroad-commission-v-royal-petroleum-corp-texapp-1936.