Tide Water Associated Oil Company v. Giles

277 S.W.2d 291, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2562
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 2, 1955
Docket10282
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 277 S.W.2d 291 (Tide Water Associated Oil Company v. Giles) 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
Tide Water Associated Oil Company v. Giles, 277 S.W.2d 291, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2562 (Tex. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

GRAY, Justice.

This appeal is from a summary judgment in favor of appellees. The parties agree that no fact issues are involved.

Appellant sued the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the State Treasurer, the State Comptroller and the Attorney General, in their official capacities, to recover money paid under protest to avoid forfeiture of mineral leases, The payment is now held in a suspense account by the Treasurer.

Appellees answered and among other defenses interposed a plea to the jurisdiction of the court.

The trial court rendered judgment that appellees’ motion for summary judgment be granted and that appellant take nothing by its suit, and further that all relief be denied appellant and that the cause be dismissed.

The facts out of which this litigation grew are: In July 1931, M. D. Bryant filed his application to lease, for oil and gas, 102 acres of land in Rusk County asserting that said land was vacant and unsurveyed. In July 1933, H. H. Groneman made a similar application to lease another tract of 44.278 *293 acres in Rusk County. It appears that beginning in 1931, or even prior thereto and after that time, the two tracts of land were developed for oil and several producing wells were drilled thereon by various operators. In 1935 the State of Texas filed its suit against numerous parties seeking to recover the two tracts as vacant land. Appellant was a party defendant to that suit but in a capacity other than as involved here. Also Bryant and Groneman were made parties and they filed their cross actions. On July 31, 1939, the State recovered judgment in the district court adjudging the two tracts to be vacant land which judgment also awarded payments for oil produced therefrom. This judgment was affirmed. Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. State, Tex.Civ.App., 162 S.W.2d 119, error refused. This cause will be later referred to as Humble v. State.

On October 26, 1937, the State issued to Bryant and Groneman oil; gas and mineral leases pursuant to the application filed by those parties above referred to. The leases each provided for a cash bonus of $2 per acre, a royalty of ⅜⅛ of the oil and gas produced plus an additional sum of $100 per acre to be paid out of the remaining %ths of the first oil produced from the leased area. The $2 per acre bonus and the ⅛& royalties called for in the leases appear to have been paid and are not in dispute here.

Subsequent to the trial court’s judgment in Humble v. State, supra, appellant by purchases and assignments acquired 4.32 acres out of the lease to Bryant and 31.36 acres out of the lease to Groneman. These purchases and assignments were made effective as of March 1, 1939, and were duly filed in the General Land Office.

The Commissioner of the General Land Office, concluded that the $100 per acre oil payments provided for in the original leases had not been paid and that as to the 4.32 acre and 31.36 acre tracts the same with interest were due. Appellant was so notified, payment was demanded and notice was given that if the payment was not made action would be taken to forfeit the leases. The payment as demanded was made to the Commissioner on January 31, 1953, under protest, the payment was delivered into the suspense account where it is now held, and this suit was filed seeking its refund, appellant alleging the payment was not due and owing but that it was demanded, collected and is retained without lawful authority.

It is the contention of appellant that the $100 oil payment, specified in the leases was stipulated, adjudicated and paid m Humble v. State, supra, and that “the prior judgment is res judicata of satisfaction of the oil payment.”

In order for us to determine whether this is a suit against the State it is necessary for us to construe the judgment in Humble v. State, supra.

When appellant filed its transfers and assignments from Bryant and Groneman in the General Land Office it became substituted for them and “assume[d] all the obligations, pains and penalties that the law imposed upon the original permittee or lessee,”' Art. 5349c, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. If in fact the $100 per acre oil payment was not paid then appellant is liable therefor. The parties do not disagree as to this statement but differ as to the matters adjudicated in Humble v. State, supra.

In Humble v. State, supra, the parties stipulated in the trial court with reference to the amount of oil that had been produced, the dates, prices, received,' drilling and operation costs etc. as a basis for judgment in the event the land'was adjudged to be vacant. Bryant and Groneman and the State made a further stipulation by which they agreed that:

“(1) The amount of recovery awarded the plaintiff should be a sum equal to the value of eight-eighths of the oil produced from wells drilled upon the area so recovered by the State which was produced prior to the date that the application for survey .to lease was filed in the County Surveyor’s Office with respect to said area-and one-eighth (⅛) of the value of such oil produced after the filing of such respective applica- *294 lions. In determining the value of the oil produced, the values as set forth in the several stipulations already introduced in evidence, shall be employed by deducting from the gross value, the gross production taxes paid thereon,. and by adding thereto interest at the rate of six percent (6%) per annum from the end of each calendar year (but not compounded) down to the date of the judgment herein. • There shall not be deducted from the amount recovered by the State any drilling or operating costs.
“(2) The amount of recovery awarded the cross-acting defendants shall be a sum equal to seven eighths (%ths) of the value of the oil produced from and after the date of the filing of the respective applications for survey to lease. The value of said oil shall be determined in the same manner as provided for in paragraph (1) above. There shall be deducted 'from the value so arrived at the costs of drilling and operating said wells, as set forth in the respective 'stipulations on file herein.' For the purpose of' computing interest upon the amount' recovered by the cross-acting defendants it is understood and agreed that the first production the value of which is awarded to the cross-acting defendants shall be offset by drilling costs and operating expenses theretofore incurred, and that no interest will be allowed such cross-acting defendants except upon any net balance at the end of each calendar year after deducting all prior drilling costs and operating expenses.”

The judgment awarded the State title and possession of the two tracts of land subject to the leases of Bryant and Groneman, and awarded the State, Bryant and Groneman recoveries against the operating defendants calculated upon'the above stipulation. This judgment appears to have been paid and satisfied by all defendants in the judgment.

That judgment; adjudged the State to be the owner of the. two tracts of land and as such owner that it was entitled to recover %ths of the oil produced up to the time of the filing of applications to lease by Bryant and Groneman and ⅛⅛ of such oil thereafter.

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Bluebook (online)
277 S.W.2d 291, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tide-water-associated-oil-company-v-giles-texapp-1955.