Gladys Belle Oil Co. v. Mackey

• Decision Date: 29 July 1914
• Docket Number: 4037.
• Citation: 216 F. 129
• Parties: GLADYS BELLE OIL CO. et al. v. MACKEY et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

216 F. 129

GLADYS BELLE OIL CO. et al. v. MACKEY et al.

No. 4037.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

July 29, 1914

James B. Diggs, of Tulsa, Okl. (F. C. Proctor and D. Edward Greer both of Beaumont, Tex., and Henry McGraw, of Tulsa, Okl., on the brief), for appellants Gladys Belle Oil Co., Gypsy Oil Co., Charles Stunkard, and Walter Stunkard.

John B Campbell, of Muskogee, Okl. (Campbell & Beall, of Muskogee Okl., on the brief), for appellees Cyrus S. Avery and the Waterside Oil & Gas Co.

Before SANBORN and CARLAND, Circuit Judges, and REED, District Judge.

CARLAND Circuit Judge.

The bill in this case was filed by the United States to quiet the title to a parcel of land in Tulsa county, Okl. Appellants, having been made defendants therein, filed an answer and also a cross-bill, making the United States and certain codefendants in the original suit, defendants therein.

The Pollard-Hagan Oil Company, Cyrus S. Avery, and the Waterside Oil & Gas Company demurred to the cross-bill. The United States answered the same. On July 19, 1913, the demurrers of Avery, and the Waterside Oil & Gas Company, having been brought on for hearing, were treated as motions to dismiss under the new equity rules and overruled. The demurrer of the Pollard-Hagan Oil Company, treated in the same way, was sustained 'in so far as said cross-complaint claims and asserts any right, title, or interest in and to the land described therein which lies below the high-water mark in the Arkansas river,' and the cross-complaint in the particular mentioned was dismissed. The Waterside Oil & Gas Company, Avery, and the Pollard-Hagan Oil Company, were given 15 days to answer the cross-bill. It was also provided in the decree appealed from:

'It further appearing to the court that there are certain answers, issues, and actions arising between and among the defendants herein of which the court has jurisdiction and which ought to be determined, and said cause is retained on the docket for such other and further orders, judgments, and decrees as may be found to be proper.'

The proceedings in the court below, as above detailed, left the cross-bill pending with the right of the Pollard-Hagan Oil Company, Cyrus S. Avery, and the Waterside Oil & Gas Company to answer the cross-bill within 15 days; the United States having already answered the same. Appellants have appealed from so much of the decree of the court as dismissed a portion of their cross-bill. We think it clearly appears from the face of the record that we have no jurisdiction to hear the appeal, and, such being the case, it is our plain duty to notice our want of jurisdiction even though counsel for appellees make no objection upon this ground. The act of Congress creating this court (Act March 3, 1891, c. 517, 26 Stat. 826 (U.S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 547)) confers on it appellate jurisdiction to review, by appeal or writ of error final decisions of the District Courts in the class of cases to which this appellate jurisdiction extends. The only exceptions...