Gant v. City of Oklahoma City, 547

Citation289 U.S. 98,77 L.Ed. 1058,53 S.Ct. 530
Decision Date10 April 1933
Docket NumberNo. 547,547
PartiesGANT et al. v. CITY OF OKLAHOMA CITY et al
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Appeal from the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma.

Messrs. James S. Twyford and J. H. Everest, both of Oklahoma City, Okl., for appellants.

Mr. Harlan T. Deupree, of Oklahoma City, Okl., for appellees.

Mr. Justice SUTHERLAND delivered the opinion of the Court.

The bill of complaint alleges that plaintiffs (appellants here) are lessees of a tract of land in Oklahoma City, State of Oklahoma, supposed to contain gas and oil; that by the terms of the lease they are required to commence drilling a well within a time fixed; that they have contracted for such drilling and the work has been begun and is now in progress; that they have a permit from the authorities of the city as required by ordinance, but defendants threaten to and will forcibly stop the work, to plaintiffs' irreparable damage, unless they execute and file a bond conditioned as provided by the city ordinance in the penal sum of $200,000, signed by some surety company authorized to transact business within the state; that the ordinance making such requirement is unreasonable and unconstitutional, and if enforced will have the effect of depriving plaintiffs of valuable property rights without due process of law. An answer was filed denying generally the allegations of the bill, and a cross-petition praying that plaintiffs be restrained from continuing the drilling of the well until plaintiffs had executed the bond required by the ordinance. After a hearing, at which evidence was introduced in support of the bill, the trial court denied plaintiffs' prayer for an injunction and granted a permanent injunction against them upon the cross-petition.

The bill does not in terms charge an infringement of the Fourteenth Amendment or of any other provision of the federal Constitution; and the record does not disclose whether the trial court at any time considered or determined that question. Nor is there anything in the present record to show, except inferentially, that the federal question was raised by appellants or considered by the Supreme Court. A basis for our jurisdiction must be found, if at all, in the decision and opinion of the state Supreme Court upon a prior appeal in the same case from a decree granting an interlocutory injunction. Gant v. Oklahoma City, 150 Okl. 86, 89, 6 P.(2d) 1065. It there appears that an attack upon the ordinance as infringing the due process of law clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was argued before and considered by that court, and the ordinance sustained as valid under that clause as well as under the due process clause of the state Constitution. An appeal to this court followed but was dismissed for the want of jurisdiction, the decree not being final. 284 U.S. 594, 52 S.Ct. 203, 76 L.Ed. 512. After the remand to the state court of first instance, final decree on the merits was rendered against appellants. From that decree an appeal was taken to the state Supreme Court, which affirmed on the authority of its prior decision. 15 P.(2d) 833. In effect, the earlier decision was thereby read into, and made a part of, the later one. Appellants, by this appeal, therefore, have invoked the jurisdiction of this court at the first opportunity open to them, and the federal question, having been considered by the state Supreme Court, is properly here. Grays Har- bor Co. v. Coats-Fordney Co., 243 U.S. 251, 256, 257, 37 S.Ct. 295, 61 L.Ed. 702; Louisiana Nav. Co. v. Oyster Commission, 226 U.S. 99, 101, 102, 33 S.Ct. 78, 57 L.Ed. 138; Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co. v. McCabe, 213 U.S. 207, 214, 29 S.Ct. 430, 53 L.Ed. 765.

The ordinance, so far as pertinent, provides that no well shall be drilled within the limits of the city until there shall be filed with the city clerk a bond in the sum of $200,000 covering each well, executed by 'some bonding or indemnity company authorized to do business in the State of Oklahoma,' conditioned for the payment of damages on account of injuries to property, bodily injuries, etc., suffered by any one and resulting from the...

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59 cases
  • Urie v. Thompson
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • May 31, 1949
    ...to (him), and the fede al question, having been considered by the state Supreme Court, is properly here.' Gant v. Oklahoma City, 289 U.S. 98, 100, 53 S.Ct. 530, 531, 77 L.Ed. 1058. See, generally, Boskey, Finality of State Court Judgments under the Federal Judicial Code, 43 Col.L.Rev. 1002,......
  • Nebbia v. People of State of New York, 531
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • March 5, 1934
    ...O'Gorman & Young v. Hartford Ins. Co., 282 U.S. 251, 257, 258, 51 S.Ct. 130, 75 L.Ed. 324, 72 A.L.R. 1163; Gant v. Oklahoma City, 289 U.S. 98, 102, 53 S.Ct. 530, 77 L.Ed. 1058. 41 See note 32, supra. 42 Public Service Comm. v. Great Northern Utilities Co., 289 U.S. 130, 53 S.Ct. 546, 77 L.E......
  • City of Atlanta v. National Bituminous Coal Com'n
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Columbia
    • February 16, 1939
    ...Hughes, C. J., concurring in Carter v. Carter Coal Co., 298 U.S. 238, 319, 56 S.Ct. 855, 80 L.Ed. 1160. See Gant v. Oklahoma City, 289 U.S. 98, 102, 53 S. Ct. 530, 77 L.Ed. 1058; Standard Oil Co. v. Marysville, 279 U.S. 582, 584, 49 S.Ct. 430, 73 L.Ed. 856; South Carolina State Highway Dept......
  • Colgate v. Harvey
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • December 16, 1935
    ...102, 55 S.Ct. 333, 339, 79 L.Ed. 780. Cf. Packard v. Banton, 264 U.S. 140, 145, 44 S.Ct. 257, 68 L.Ed. 596; Gant v. Oklahoma City, 289 U.S. 98, 102, 53 S.Ct. 530, 77 L.Ed. 1058; Storassli v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 57, 62, 51 S.Ct. 354, 75 L.Ed. The general classification, namely, that the righ......
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1 books & journal articles
  • A REIGN OF ERROR: PROPERTY RIGHTS AND STARE DECISIS.
    • United States
    • Washington University Law Review Vol. 99 No. 2, October 2021
    • October 1, 2021
    ...permitting ordinance that depended on surface owner's consent was invalid delegation); Brief for Appellants at 49-50, Gant v. Okla. City, 289 U.S. 98 (1933) (No. 547), 1932 WL 33481 (failing to demonstrate that requiring sureties to post bond before acquiring oil and gas drilling license co......

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