Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Co. v. Howard

212 S.W. 735, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 735
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 19, 1919
DocketNo. 9161.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 212 S.W. 735 (Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Co. v. Howard) 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
Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Co. v. Howard, 212 S.W. 735, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 735 (Tex. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

CONNER, C. J.

This appeal is from an order of the district court of Eastland county, dissolving a temporary writ of injunction theretofore issued upon the petition of the appellants.

This suit was filed on January 23, 1919, by the Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Company, which for brevity will hereafter be termed the Coal Company, and by the Prairie Oil & Gas Company, hereinafter designated as the Oil Company, against W. Howard, W. E. Jones, George J. Watson, R. D. Hinkson and others, on allegations to the effect that on March 10, 1917, said W. Howard entered into a contract with said Coal Company, whereby the company was given the exclusive right to explore for oil and gas on 160 acres- of land constituting the W. Howard homestead tract in Eastland county. The said contract was in writing, but failed to correctly describe the land so leased, and that to correct the insufficient description said Howard, in October, 1917, executed a corrected lease of his said homestead; that as a matter of fact neither the original nor the corrected lease included a 1-acre tract of land out of the Mark Haley survey now claimed by the defendants; that the said 1 acre joined the other lands of the homestead tract and formed part thereof, but in writing the leases it had been omitted by the mutual mistake of all parties thereto.

The plaintiffs further alleged that some time later than the' transactions above referred to, to wit, on October 26, 1917, the defendant Jones, acting for himself and other defendants, purchased from Howard all of the land forming .and constituting the W. Howard homestead tract, including the 1 acre above referred to; that at the time of said purchase the said Jones and other defendants well knew that the leases from Howard to the Coal Company were intended to include the 1 acre, and that it had been omitted from said leases by the mutual mistake of the parties; but that, notwithstanding such information and knowledge, they caused Howard to execute to them conveyances of the entire homestead tract, which conveyances, it vi'as averred, were subject to the prior leasehold right of the plaintiffs in action.

It was further alleged that defendants are asserting title to the said 1 acre of land, and are attempting to develop the same for oil and gas in violation of the rights of the plaintiffs; that such tract is within proven oil territory, and is very valuable; that great quantities of oil can be produced therefrom; and that, unless said defendants are restrained from further operations .thereon, the plaintiffs will suffer irreparable injury and damage.

Upon presentation of .plaintiffs’ petition, Hon. Joe Burkett, judge of the district court of Eastland county, duly entered an order, commanding the issuance of a temporary writ of injunction as prayed for upon the plaintiffs giving good and sufficient bond in the sum of $5,000.

*736 The writ ordered was duly issued, and thereafter, on February S, 1919, the defendants Jones and others filed their motion to dissolve, alleging, among other things, that they were the owners of said 1 acre, having purchased the same for a valuable consideration; that mention of this 1-acre tract was not made in the leases under which the plaintiffs claim, and denying any mistake in its omission from the plaintiffs’ leases, and especially denying the mutual mistake alleged, and especially denying notice of any such mistake. The defendants further averred that they had, at great expense, purchased a standard rig, machinery, and tools, and had drilled a well for oil and gas on said 1-acre tract to a depth of 3,300 feet, and were still engaged in the prosecution of said well; that the 1-acre tract is located in the proven oil field of Eastland county, and that said well and improvements would greatly deteriorate if required'to stand and remain idle; and, finally, they averred their readiness and ability to make bond in favor of the plaintiffs in any sum required by the court, conditioned that in the event of final recovery by the plaintiffs the value of the minerals extracted should be paid to them.

Upon the heading of the motion, the court entered an order dissolving the temporary writ of injunction, but continued it in force pending the appeal, upon plaintiffs giving bond in the sum of $50,000.' The bond was filed in due time by the plaintiffs, and they have duly appealed from said order of dissolution.

In general terms it may be said that the evidence of the parties submitted on the motion to dissolve was in substantial accord with their respective allegations. More particularly it was shown that Howard’s homestead tract was composed of four separate parcels of land. The 1 acre in controversy is one of the parcels constituting the whole, hut it was acquired by Howard by a separate conveyance. Mr. Howard testified quite definitely to the effect that it was the purpose of all parties thereto to include his entire homestead tract in both the original lease of March 10, 1917, and in the subsequent corrected lease of October, 1917, and that the 1 acre of land in controversy had been omitted from both leases by mistake. His testimony and other evidence also tends strongly to show that appellees, before their purchase of the fee in the Howard homestead, had notice of the alleged fact that the 1-acre parcel had been leased together with the other parcels to the Coal Company, and that it had, through oversight or mistake, been omitted from the leases.

Upon the facts so stated, appellants insist that they are entitled, as a matter of law, to have appellees enjoined from a further prosecution of the oil well, begun and drilled, as by them alleged, until, at least, it shall be otherwise determined, on final hearing. Appellants’ contentions are thus stated, in the several propositions they present:

“(1) Where the facts show threatened, acts which, 'if not prevented, will result in irreparable injury, or where it appears that such acts are in their character and tendency destructive to the inheritance or to that which gives it its chief value, an injunction will lie, notwithstanding a dispute, or even pending litigation, as to title.
“(2) The drilling of an oil well on oil land, and the threatened appropriation of the oil produced therefrom, constitutes irreparable injury, and an injunction will lie restraining such action, notwithstanding a dispute, or even pending litigation, as to title.
“(3) Where the title to oil property is in litigation, an injunction will lie to enjoin persons in possession from drilling oil wells thereon and extracting the oil therefrom; for such action is emphatically the taking away of the entire substance of the estate, and besides, there is in such a case no mode of estimating the injury that will ever approach substantial accuracy.
“(4) While a legal action is pending and being prosecuted in good faith for title to and possession of property, neither party will be permitted to destroy the property’s value by appropriating to himself that which makes it valuable, and in such a situation equity, not being immediately concerned with the superiority of the rival claims, does not wait upon the adjudication of the question, but will restrain any action which in the end would make the property valueless in the hands of the successful claimant.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Carter Oil Co. v. Blair
57 So. 2d 64 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1951)
Davis v. Gillen
227 S.W.2d 834 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1949)
Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Neeks Drilling Co.
119 S.W.2d 169 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1938)
Browning v. Hinerman
224 S.W. 236 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1920)
Emde v. Johnson
214 S.W. 575 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1919)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
212 S.W. 735, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 735, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-pacific-coal-oil-co-v-howard-texapp-1919.