Russell Petroleum Co. v. Walker

1933 OK 75, 19 P.2d 582, 162 Okla. 216, 1933 Okla. LEXIS 564
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 7, 1933
Docket24072
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 1933 OK 75 (Russell Petroleum Co. v. Walker) 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
Russell Petroleum Co. v. Walker, 1933 OK 75, 19 P.2d 582, 162 Okla. 216, 1933 Okla. LEXIS 564 (Okla. 1933).

Opinions

ANDREWS, J.

The plaintiff in error commenced an action against the defendants in error in the district court of Oklahoma county. The trial court held that it was “* * * without power, jurisdiction or authority to enjoin the Corporation Commission or the defendants Paul Walker, Roy Iíugihes, and Ci O. Ohilders, constituting staid, Commission, from trying the plaintiff upon any charge, * * *” and that it was “* * * without power, jurisdiction, or authority to enjoin the defendant Cicero I. Murray, his agents, and servants, and those acting under his direction as prayed in plaintiff’s petition. * * *” From the judgment based thereon the plaintiff appealed, to thisi court. Hereinafter the parties: will be (referred to as) plaintiff and defendants.

The first question presented by the plaintiff is:

*217 “Does the district court of Oklahoma county, Okla., sitting in equity, have jurisdiction to enjoin the Corporation Commission from closing- an oil well for a violation of its orders or some one of them, in a proper ease?”

The plaintiff says that the trial court renounced jurisdiction as to the orders of the Corporation Commission upon the theory that section 20, art. 9, of the Constitution forbade its exercise thereof. That section provides that:

“* * * No court of this state (except the' Supreme Court, by way of appeals as herein authorized) shall have jurisdiction (o review, reverse, correct, or annul any nction of the Commission within the scope of its authority, or to suspend or delay the execution or operation thereof, or to enjoin, restrain, or interfere with the Commission in the performance of its official duties: Provided, however, that the writs of mandamus and prohibition shall lie from the Supreme Court to the Commission in all cases where such writs, respectively, would lie to any inferior court or officer.”

That provision is applicable only to actions of the Corporation Commission which are within the scope of its authority. That provision and the provisions of section 2, art. 7, of the 'Constitution, when construed together, vest this court with exclusive jurisdiction to review, reverse, correct or annul any action within the scope of the authority of the Corporation Commission. By the provisions of section 10, art. 7, of the Constitution, district courts have jurisdiction in all cases, civil and criminal, except where exclusive jurisdiction was, by this Constitution, or is. by law, conferred on same other court. Since exclusive jurisdiction was conferred upon this court by the constitutional provisions, supra, the district court did not have jurisdiction to review the orders of the Corporation Commission which were within the scope of its authority.

This court in Russell v. Walker, 160 Okla. 145, 15 P. (2d) 114, held that the Corporation Commission had jurisdiction, under the provisions of sections 11565 to 11574, inclusive, O. S. 1931 (sections 7954 to 7963, inclusive, C. O. S. 1921), to impose and enforce reasonable regulations for the production of oil from a common source of supply. That 'decision was based on the decision of this court in C. C. Julian Oil & Royalties Co. v. Capshaw, 145 Okla. 237, 292 P. 841. and the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Champlin Refining Co. v. Corporation Commission, 286 U. S. 210, 52 S. Ct. 559, 76 L. Ed. 1062, in each of which decisions the legislative act„ supra, was held neither to be repugnant to the provisions of the federal nor the state Constitution.

In the trial court the plaintiff contended that the Corporation Commission was assuming and claiming the right to order the wells of the plaintiff: closed for violation of certain orders theretofore made by the Corporation Commission. The plaintiff contended then and contends, now that the orders said to have been violated were void: for the reason that they operated as a discrimination against the plaintiff. Thpse orders were legislative in character and were made under the authority granted to the Corporation Commission by the Constitution and the authority delegated to'the Corporation Commission by the Legislature. They were not orders judicial in their character.

The making of the legislative orders, supra, was within the scope of the authoi*ity of the Corporation Commission. This court will assume that the Corporation Commission will act within the scope of its authority when it proceeds, if it over does, to make an order judicial in character with reference to the property of the plaintiff. Prom that order an appeal may be taken to this' court or this court may exercise its general superintending control over the Corporation Commission and issue a writ of prohibition. If either procedure is followed, this court will review any judicial order so made, and, at the same time, it will review the legislative orders upon which the judicial orders are based. Thereby the plaintiff is afforded an adequate remedy.

We have not overlooked the decision of this court in Pioneer Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. State, 40 Okla. 417, 138 P. 1033, cited by the plaintiff.

The district court did not err in denying the application for injunction against the Corporation Commission, and its judgment thereon is in all things affirmed.

The second question presented by the plaintiff is;

“Did the district court err in holding that, because of the orders of the Governor hereinbefore set forth, it had no jurisdiction or authority to control the defendant in error Cicero I. Murray and those Who acted with him and under his command and direction?”

It appears from the record that, while *218 the Corporation Commission had. made an order fixing the allowable flow of all wells in the Oklahoma City oil field and other orders legislative in their character for the prevention of waste, no charge of overproduction by the plaintiff had been filed with the Corporation Commission; that the Corporation Commission had made no order directing the search, breaking- or entering into, or the seizure of any of the property owned or operated! by the plaintiff, and that Cicero 1. Murray was not an agent of the Corporation Commission.

In a brief the defendants state:

“As soon as possible, after this case was determined, proceedings were filed before the Commission for a determination of the amount of Russell Petroleum Company’s overproduction, and the period of time that should! elapse before it was legally entitled, to produce again, and that would have been determined long since but for the Russell Company^i ¡application to this court for a writ of prohibition against the Commission prohibiting) it from hearing- and determining the matter,' which is still pending. The intent has been to follow the due and orderly process of law, and to release the wells when the proper time found by the Commission under its proration orders, had expired.

Thereby, in effect, they say that they took charge of the I property of this plaintiff, closed its wells, and thereafter proceeded before the Corporation Commission for a determination of the amount of overproduction by the plaintiff.

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Bluebook (online)
1933 OK 75, 19 P.2d 582, 162 Okla. 216, 1933 Okla. LEXIS 564, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/russell-petroleum-co-v-walker-okla-1933.