Rosse v. Northern Pump Company

353 S.W.2d 287, 16 Oil & Gas Rep. 636, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2135
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 10, 1962
Docket10918
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 353 S.W.2d 287 (Rosse v. Northern Pump Company) 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
Rosse v. Northern Pump Company, 353 S.W.2d 287, 16 Oil & Gas Rep. 636, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2135 (Tex. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

RICHARDS, Justice.

Suit was brought by Charlie W. Rosse, appellant, against Northern Pump Company, John B. Hawley, Jr., Henry W. Volk, Jr., Dr. Mclver Furman, W. Preston Pittman and T. S. Scibienski, Trustees under the Last Will and Testament of Clara Driscoll, Deceased, Dr. Mclver Furman, W. Preston Pittman and T. S. Scibienski, Trustees of the Robert Driscoll and Julia Driscoll and Robert Driscoll, Jr. Foundations, King Ranch, Trustee, Mrs. Louise E. Flato, Mrs. Florence Arnold East, Allen B. East, Mrs. Annie Mae East, and Alice National Bank, appellees, seeking a judgment declaring that he owns a royalty interest of ¼6th of all oil, gas and other minerals in and under and that have been and may be produced from lots 1 to 8 inclusive, Block 41, Kleberg Town and Improvement Company’s Subdivision, in Kleberg County, Texas.

Appellees King Ranch, Trustee, and Mrs. Louise E. Flato filed answers admitting the interest claimed by Rosse to be a royalty interest. Appellees Northern Pump Company and John B. Hawley, Jr. assignees of W. R. Lokey, lessee, under an oil, gas and mineral lease executed by all other appel-lees and their predecessors in title as lessors covering the oil, gas and other minerals in and under the property in controversy, answered stating that they had no interest in the subject matter of the suit other than as stakeholders to pay over to the parties entitled thereto the proceeds of the production covered by the lease. Appellee Henry W. Volk, Jr. owner of an overriding interest in the lease, filed no answer but the Trial Court denied Rosse any relief against him.

The remaining appellees Florence Arnold East, Allen B. East, Annie Mae East, Alice National Bank, Dr. Mclver Furman, W. Preston Pittman and T. S. Scibienski, Trustees under the last will and testament of Clara Driscoll, deceased, and Trustees of the Robert Driscoll, Julia Driscoll and Robert Driscoll, Jr. Foundations joined in an answer and cross action in which they contended that the interest asserted by Rosse was not a royalty interest but a participating mineral interest and that since lessee W. R. Lokey and his assigns, appel-lees Northern Pump Company and John B. Hawley, Jr., had developed and operated said lease thereby incurring certain reasonable and necessary expenses which inured to the benefit of Rosse as co-tenant, and as a result of which both oil and gas in commercial quantities had been produced from the land involved, Rosse should bear a ½6⅛ part of the necessary and reasonable expenses incurred in producing and marketing the oil and gas and prayed that judgment be rendered declaring Rosse’s interest to be a reservation of a participating mineral interest as distinguished from a royalty interest and that such mineral interest' in Rosse as well as the proceeds of *289 the sale of the production attributed thereto held by appellees Northern Pump Company and John B. Hawley, Jr. be charged with ¾6th of the cost of production heretofore and hereafter incurred by the owners of the lease and the appellee lessee be directed to pay to them a %rds part thereof. They further pleaded in the alternative that since Rosse by his pleadings had adopted the lease to W. R. Lokey, he was entitled to only ¾eth of the royalties provided in the lease and they were therefore entitled to %rds of 1 %6ths of the royalties and in the alternative prayed that the Court enter judgment accordingly.

The case was tried before the Court without a jury and judgment was rendered holding that Rosse’s interest was a participating mineral interest and not a royalty interest but awarded to Rosse and the other appellees, except lessees Northern Pump Company and John B. Hawley, Jr., various portions of the mineral interests and the proceeds thereof in the oil, gas and other minerals in, under and theretofore and thereafter to be produced from the land in question. The awards of the mineral interests will be detailed and discussed infra in this opinion.

No evidence as to the amounts expended by lessees Northern Pump Company, John B. Hawley, Jr. and Henry W. Volk, Jr. in drilling and developing the lease and the costs of production was offered by any of the parties upon the trial nor does the judgment award the lessees Northern Pump Company and Hawley any recovery against Rosse for his proportionate share of the cost of production incurred by the lessees. Rosse excepted to the judgment and gave notice of appeal to the Fourth Court of Civil Appeals at San Antonio.

At Rosse’s request, the Trial Court made and filed findings of facts and conclusions of law, to which Rosse filed exceptions and objections. The appeal was duly perfected to the Fourth Court of Civil Appeals.

In the interest of brevity, Charlie W. Rosse will be hereinafter referred to as appellant. Appellees Northern Pump Company, John B. Hawley, Jr. and Henry W. Volk, Jr. will be referred to as lessees. Appellees King Ranch, Trustee and Mrs. Louise E. Flato will be referred to as King Ranch and Flato and appellees Florence Arnold East, Allen B. East, Annie Mae East, Alice National Bank, Dr. Mclver Furman, W. Preston Pittman and T. S. Scibienski, trustees under the last will and testament of Clara Driscoll, deceased, and Trustees of the Robert Driscoll, Julia Driscoll and Robert Driscoll, Jr. Foundations will be referred to as appellees.

Appellant predicates his appeal upon six points of error. The primary question for consideration is whether the mineral interest owned and asserted by appellant in the lands in controversy is a royalty interest as asserted by appellant or a participating mineral interest as asserted by appellees.

Appellant claims title to the interest retained by Oscar Rosse et ux. in their deed to Robert J. Kleberg, Trustee, dated April 6, 1920 wherein the grant as well as the reservation reads as follows:

“All of our right, title and equity in and to all of the oil, gas, coal, sulphur or other minerals, save and except an equal one-sixteenth (Ms) part, which we hereby reserve for ourselves, under and upon all of that certain lot, tract piece or parcel of land lying and being situated in Kleberg County, Texas, * * * Farm Lots numbered one (1), Two (2), Three (3), Four (4), Five (5), Six (6), Seven (7), and Eight (8), in Section numbered Forty-one (41), of the Kleberg Town and Improvement Company’s Subdivision of lands on Kleberg County, Texas * * * together with the right of agrees 1 and ingress.”

*290 Prior to the execution of this deed Oscar Rosse and wife on October 30, 1919 executed and delivered to Charles H. Flato, Jr. et al. an oil, gas and mineral lease on lots 3 to 6, inclusive, of Block 41 and on February 9, 1920 Oscar Rosse and wife executed a deed to Robert J. Kleberg, Trustee of "an undivided equal one half (½) interest to all of” their right, title and equity in and to the “oil, gas, coal, sulphur and other minerals under or upon” Lots 1 to 8, inclusive, Block 41.

By deed dated June IS, 1925 Oscar Rosse and wife conveyed to Charlie W. Rosse, appellant, Lots 1 to 8, inclusive, Block 41, the deed providing that:

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Bluebook (online)
353 S.W.2d 287, 16 Oil & Gas Rep. 636, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2135, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rosse-v-northern-pump-company-texapp-1962.