Courseview, Inc. v. Phillips Petroleum Co.
| Decision Date | 23 April 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 12487,12487 |
| Citation | 258 S.W.2d 391 |
| Parties | COURSEVIEW, Inc. v. PHILLIPS PETROLEUM CO. et al. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Andrews, Kurth, Campbell & Bradley, F. L. Andrews and James R. Drury, of Houston, for appellant.
R. L. Foster and Harry D. Turner, of Bartlesville, Okl., and R. K. Batten and E. H. Brown, Houston, for appellee Phillips Petroleum Co.
Escar R. Wren and Woodul, Arberbury & Wren, Houston, for appellee Mid-Coast Oil Co.
This appeal is from a judgment of the 130th District Court of Brazoria County, Honorable G. P. Hardy, Jr., judge presiding, with a jury, decreeing that the appellant herein, Courseview, Incorporated, take nothing against either appellee herein-that is, Phillips Petroleum Company and Mid Coast Oil Company-pursuant to an instructed verdict to that effect the attending jury had returned.
In this Court the appellant challenges that action, through some 18 points of error, under the over-all claim that it had at least raised material issues of fact in support of its declared upon cause of action; whereas, each of the corporate appellees asserts the correctness of the Court's judgment, the Phillips Petroleum Company presenting 9 counter-points, while the Mid Coast Oil Company replies in its own behalf to appellant's points, affecting it only, in its points Nos. XIV to XVIII, inclusive.
As indicated, appellant was the plaintiff below; at the expense of some prolixity, this statement of the sources of its cause of action is taken from its brief:
'On February 16, 1939, Plaintiff's predecessors-in-title, Amos L. Beaty & Company, Inc., and Victor H. Borsodi, entered into an agreement with defendant, Phillips Petroleum Company, under which Amos L. Beaty & Company and Borsodi conveyed to Phillips Petroleum Company certain oil, gas, and mineral leases, in the Chocolate Bayou Area in Brazoria County, Texas, reserving '1/4 of the net profits that shall be derived by Second Party (Phillips) from the development and operation of the lands covered by said oil and gas leases for the purposes stated in said leases.' The agreement, herein referred to as the 1939 contract, also provided that if either party should purchase any 'royalty or mineral interest, or fee title', within an area specified in the contract, the other party would be notified thereof, and given an opportunity to purchase from the acquiring party a specified fractional interest therein.
'Plaintiff, Courseview, Inc., has succeeded to the purchase rights of Amos L. Beaty & Company, under the February 16, 1939 agreement.
'This is a suit primarily for specific performance of Plaintiff's purchase rights under the 1939 contract, and to obtain an accounting by reason of Defendant Phillips Petroleum Company's having purchased various mineral, royalty, and fee titles within the restricted area, without disclosing same to Plaintiff, or its predecessors-in-title, as required by the contract, but, on the contrary, fraudulently concealing such purchases and fraudulently inducing Plaintiff's predecessor-in-title, Amos L. Beaty & Company, to execute certain instruments relied upon by Phillips to cut off Plaintiff's purchase rights under the 1939 contract.'
The heart of such contract, as it affected this controversy, was its paragraph 7, in exact language this:
* * *." (Emphasis ours.)
Appellant, as indicated, in its trial petition, declared specifically upon all the recited violations of its claimed rights as such successor in interest of Beaty and Borsodi, under such quoted contract, alternatively seeking $250,000 in monetary damages.
In turn, both the corporate appellees challenged the acquirement of any of appellant's claimed rights by it, whether claimed as resulting from the quoted contract, or otherwise; further denying that they had ever practiced any fraud upon the appellant, or its predecessors in interest, or that they had ever become liable to it in any way.
Because of the inordinate length of the record, the briefs, and arguments of all three parties, it would be impossible to detail full reviews thereof here; but, appellant, suffice it to repeat, grounded its claims upon the quoted contract, contending that there inured to it down under Beaty and Borsodi, extended oil, gas, and mineral interests in the described Chocolate Bayou area in Brazoria County, which the appellees, acting severally, had received and appropriated to their own interests, in violation and in fraud of the rights of the appellant therein, down under its succession to the rights of Beaty and Borsodi under the contract.
As recited, the trial court dismissed the jury, under its recited instruction to find in favor of both appellees in toto; the court's instruction was absolute, no particular ground, or consideration therefor, being recited.
This Court concludes that the peremptory instruction was in error, and that...
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