Murphy v. Turman Oil Co.

• Decision Date: 30 September 1936
• Docket Number: No. 8514.,8514.
• Citation: 97 S.W.2d 485
• Parties: MURPHY et al. v. TURMAN OIL CO.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

97 S.W.2d 485

MURPHY et al. v. TURMAN OIL CO.

No. 8514.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Austin.

September 30, 1936.

Rehearing Denied October 21, 1936.

Appeal from District Court, Travis County; J. D. Moore, Judge.

Action by the Turman Oil Company against C. H. Murphy and others. From an adverse judgment, the defendants appeal.

Affirmed.

Wm. McCraw, Atty. Gen., and Harry S. Pollard, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant Railroad Commission of Texas.

Felts, Wheeler & Wheeler, of Austin, and Saye & Saye, of Longview, for appellants C. H. Murphy and J. I. Roberts.

C. E. Cooper and J. H. Parsons, both of Tulsa, Okl., and Powell, Wirtz, Rauhut & Gideon, of Austin, for appellee.

BAUGH, Justice.

This is a rule 37 case. Appeal is from a judgment of the district court setting aside a permit granted by the Railroad Commission to appellants to drill a fourth well on 3.2 acres of land in the East Texas oil field in Rusk county, approximately 314 feet wide, north and south, and approximately 444 feet long, east and west. The well having been completed at the time of the trial, the trial court enjoined production therefrom and ordered the well plugged.

The original tract out of which the 3.2 acres here involved was carved consisted of a 100-acre tract, known as the Brightwell tract, rectangular in shape, running north and south, 505 varas wide and 1116 varas long, capable of development for oil and gas as a whole. On December 17, 1930, the owners thereof leased the east half of said 100-acre tract for oil and gas, the south 30 acres of said east half being held, through assignment, by appellee oil company at the time of the trial, on which it had ten producing wells.

On March 6, 1931, said fee owners of the 100-acre tract leased for oil and gas the south 20 acres of the west half of said 100-acre tract to W. D. Walton and four others jointly, said tract being 692.5 feet wide, east and west, and 1,258 feet long, north and south, and adjoining on the east the 30-acre tract of appellee. And on October 13, 1931, W. D. Walton and the other four joint owners assigned to the Houston Oil Company the north half of their 20-acre lease, or 10 acres thereof, approximately square in dimensions, retaining the lease on the south 10 acres of said 20-acre tract. The retained 10 acres was also approximately square in dimensions. At that time one well had been drilled on each of said 10-acre tracts. On November 1, 1932, the joint owners of the leasehold on the south 10-acre tract procured an agreed partition judgment of the district court of Rusk county, subdividing the leasehold on said 10 acres into six tracts, five of which contained 1.6 acres each and the other contained 2 acres. These subdivisions we have designated on the attached map as A, B, C D, E, and F. At the time of this subdivision rule 37 provided for spacing distances between wells of 660 feet, and 330 feet from property lines. The well on said 10-acre tract at the time of the partition by agreed judgment was located on the 2-acre tract marked D on the attached map.

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINING TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

Thereafter, and prior to the Railroad Commission's order on the application here involved, the owners assigned the lease on subdivisions E and F in the S. W. corner of said 10-acre tract, aggregating 3.2 acres to appellants herein. Through permits granted one well had been drilled, each as an exception to rule 37, near the center of each of said subdivisions, thus making six wells on said 10-acre tract. Further applications were made for two additional wells, one near the south end of each of subdivisions A and B. These were refused by the Railroad Commission. The applicants thereupon filed suit in the district court of Travis county against the commission to enjoin interference with the drilling of these two wells. Such injunctions were granted, from which no appeal was prosecuted, and these two wells were drilled, thus giving two wells each on 1.6-acre tracts A and B. Thereupon appellants secured a second well near the north end of 1.6-acre subdivision F, thus giving them three wells on their 3.2 acres of land. Because of the drilling, under injunction, of the second well near the south end of subdivision B, they applied to the commission for a permit to drill an offset well, the one here involved, near the north end of subdivision E, thus giving them four wells on their 3.2 acres, being the same number located on the adjacent 3.2 acres contiguous to their leasehold on the north, and making, all told, ten wells on said 10-acre tract. The Railroad Commission granted this permit as an exception to prevent confiscation. The well was drilled to completion, and this suit brought by appellee, owner of the 30-acre lease to the east of and contiguous to the 10-acre subdivided tract. The relief was granted as above stated and this appeal prosecuted.

The foregoing statement brings the case clearly within the rule repeatedly announced by this court and approved by the Supreme Court. Sun Oil Co. v. Railroad Commission (Tex.Civ.App.) 68 S.W.(2d) 609; Humble Oil & Ref. Co. v. Railroad Commission (Tex.Civ.App.) 68 S.W.(2d) 622, affirmed by Supreme Court in Brown v. Humble Oil & Ref. Co., 83 S.W.(2d) 935, 99 A.L.R. 1107; Edgar v. Stanolind Oil & Gas Co. (Tex.Civ.App.) 90 S.W.(2d) 656 (writ ref.); Empire Gas & Fuel Co. v. Railroad Commission (Tex.Civ.App.) 94 S.W.(2d) 1240 (writ ref.). The 10-acre tract was voluntarily subdivided after the East Texas field had been developed, when rule 37 provided for spacings of 660-330 feet, and in such manner that such subdivisions could not...