Arkansas Louisiana Gas Company v. Kroeger
Decision Date | 17 May 1962 |
Docket Number | No. 19328.,19328. |
Citation | 303 F.2d 129 |
Parties | ARKANSAS LOUISIANA GAS COMPANY, Appellant, v. H. A. KROEGER et al., Appellees. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Butler, Binion, Rice & Cook, Houston, Tex., Robert Roberts, Jr., Blanchard, Goldstein, Walker & O'Quin, Shreveport, La., Turner & Bankhead, Carthage, Tex., Cecil N. Cook, Fletcher H. Etheridge, Houston, Tex., William C. Perry, Houston, Tex., of counsel, for appellant.
Neal Powers, Carthage, Tex., Bradford Corrigan, Jr., Dallas, Tex., Golden, Croley, Howell, Johnson & Mizell, Dallas, Tex., by Lanham Croley and Bradford D. Corrigan, Jr., Dallas, Tex., for appellees Imperial Production Corporation et al.
Before TUTTLE, Chief Judge, and HUTCHESON and WISDOM, Circuit Judges.
This appeal brought and allowed pursuant to Title 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b) from the order of the district court dated October 5, 1961,1 is presented as an agreed case on appeal pursuant to Rule 76 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.
The lawsuit, as the opinion and agreed case show, is an interpleader suit brought by Arkansas to determine title to a portion of the proceeds of the production of gas and condensate from a unit located in Panola County, Texas. The bill alleged that under the terms of written contracts, Arkansas has purchased, is continuing and will continue to purchase gas and condensate produced from said units, and Arkansas is obligated to pay, upon the terms and conditions therein set out, for gas and condensate purchased and delivered from said unit, and to pay the royalties on said gas and condensate to the owners thereof on behalf of the parties designated as the sellers in said contracts. Included within the description of the unit, as stated in its designation, is a certain tract of land of 184¼ acres, more or less, in Panola County, Texas (sometimes referred to as containing 183.98 acres of land). Arkansas purchases gas and condensate from a well which is located on another tract in said unit, and not on said 183¼ acres, more or less. The ownership of an undivided ¼ interest in and to the oil, gas and other minerals in and under, and that may be produced from said tract of 183¼ acres, more or less, is uncertain, and Arkansas has withheld and tendered into the registry of the District Court, under its first amended bill of interpleader or in the nature of interpleader, the purchase price of that portion of the gas and condensate produced from said unit attributable to an undivided ¼ of 183.98/643 of such gas and condensate. Such portion of such purchase price tendered and to be tendered into the registry of the district court are hereinafter collectively called the "Disputed Proceeds".
The bill further alleged that Arkansas is a neutral stake holder and has no interest in said tract of 184¼ acres, more or less, or in said Disputed Proceeds other than as the purchaser of gas and condensate from said unit and to be protected from a multiplicity of suits and from double or multiple payment of said Disputed Proceeds by a final judgment binding upon all necessary parties who have or claim, or may claim, an interest in or portion of said Disputed Proceeds.
In addition to numerous other defendants who own or claim royalty or mineral leasehold interests in said unit, Arkansas in its bill named as defendants herein more than 500 parties who constitute members of the Organization Board (or ") of Universal Oil & Gas Co., investors in or shareholders of Universal Oil and Gas Company and creditors of said Board and said Universal Oil and Gas Company and who are all of the parties known to Arkansas who have or claim an interest in said Board or its assets or in said Universal Oil and Gas Company or its assets. Such parties are hereinafter for convenience collectively called the "Universal Claimants".
Two of the defendants, Lee B. Thompson, Trustee, and E. H. Patton, Jr., Ancillary Trustee, filed a motion that the district court enjoin and prohibit Arkansas from causing process in this case to be served upon the Universal claimants. In such a motion said trustee and said ancillary trustee alleged that they had been duly appointed and were acting under orders of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (hereinafter referred to as the "Oklahoma Federal Court") and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, respectively, as trustees, and in substance as equity receivers, of said Organization Board and Universal Oil and Gas Company, with the duty, interest, and authority to take possession of and preserve any interest which the Universal claimants may have in the property involved in this case, that they as such trustees are not adversely interested to said claimants but their interests are the same as theirs, and they fully and adequately represent all interests of all of the Universal claimants herein and, therefore, the Universal claimants named and sought to be served are not necessary or proper parties to this lawsuit. The trial court, after a full hearing in open court, by the order of October 5, 1961, held the Universal claimants not to be necessary or proper parties, granted said motion and enjoined Arkansas from causing process herein to be served upon the Universal claimants. This appeal from such order followed.
This is the way Arkansas in its brief states its position:
Appellees, in their brief, thus state their position:
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