Butcher v. Okmar Oil Co.
Decision Date | 17 January 1977 |
Citation | 65 Cal.App.3d 972,135 Cal.Rptr. 713 |
Parties | Dan E. BUTCHER, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. OKMAR OIL COMPANY, Defendant and Respondent. Civ. 49493. |
Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
The action is based on Code of Civil Procedure section 751.3 (see Appendix) enacted in 1971 'in the public interest that due procedures be established to make it possible to free, for surface use, land in urban areas which is not reasonably needed for oil and gas operations.' (Stats.1971, ch. 1586, sec. 3.) Section 751.3 provides in pertinent part that the owner of land encumbered by a right of entry in a lease for the production of oil may bring an action to terminate the right of entry to all or part of the land. The evidence must show (1) the lease or its latest amendment affecting the right of entry is more than twenty years old; (2) the land to be freed of the right of entry is not occupied by a producing well; and (3) termination of the right of entry will not significantly interfere with the right of the lessee to continue to produce oil in a practical and economic manner, utilizing appropriate production techniques consistent with good oil field practice, and to gather, transport, and market the oil. The court may qualify termination of a right of entry with equitable conditions, including imposition of limited easements in favor of the lessee and the requirement that the lessor pay for relocation of pipes, roads, and equipment to free the land for use while safeguarding oil operations in a practical and economic manner.
Plaintiff owns three lots in the City of Torrance subject to an oil lease executed in 1938 by predecessors of plaintiff and defendant. The lease gives defendant exclusive right to drill for and extract oil and gas from, and to store the oil and gas upon, the land,
Plaintiff's complaint, as amended at the hearing on the motion for summary judgment, seeks termination of defendant's right to entry to that portion of the three lots not currently occupied by two producing oil wells and three oil tanks.
On its motion for summary judgment, defendant offered the affidavit of Adolph Beren, a partner in the defendant lessee. Beren declared in pertinent part as follows:
Beren's affidavit established an absolute defense to the complaint in that a right of way cannot be terminated where termination would significantly interfere with the right of the lessee to continue to produce oil in a practical and economic manner, utilizing appropriate production techniques consistent with...
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