Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mecom, 11141
| Decision Date | 29 January 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 11141,11141 |
| Citation | 375 S.W.2d 335 |
| Parties | PHILLIPS PETROLEUM COMPANY, Appellant, v. John W. MECOM, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Wm. J. Zeman, Lloyd G. Minter, Bartlesville, Okl., E. H. Brown, Marion R. Froehlich, Houston, for appellant.
Butler, Binion, Rice & Cook, Cecil N. Cook, W. C. Perry, Louis Paine, Jr., Houston, for appellee.
This case involves a plea of privilege.
Suit was brought by Phillips Petroleum Company against John W. Mecom, a resident of Harris County, Texas, in the District Court of Galveston County, Texas, to enforce certain rights which Phillips claims to have acquired by virtue of several ordinances passed by the City of Hitchcock, Texas. Mecom filed his plea of privilege to be sued in Harris County, Texas, and, both parties having waived a jury, trial of the plea of privilege was by the Court. After a full hearing, the trial court sustained Mecom's plea of privilege and ordered the suit transferred to Harris County, Texas. No findings of fact and conclusions of law were requested by either party, and none was made or filed. There is no question but that the land involved is situated in Galveston County.
We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Phillips is before this Court on two points of error to the effect (1) that the trial court erred in sustaining Mecom's plea of privilege because this is a suit for land in Galveston County within Subdivision 14 of Article 1995 Vernon's Ann.Civ.St.; (2) that this is a suit to stay waste on lands in Galveston County, within Subdivision 14 of Article 1995 V.C.S.
Article 1995 V.S.C. states that no person who is an inhabitant of this State shall be sued out of the county in which he has his domicile except in the following cases: Exception 14 states that suits for the recovery of land or damages thereto or to remove encumbrances upon the title to land, or to quiet the title to land, or to prevent or stay waste on lands, must be brought in the county in which the land, or a part thereof, may lie.
Phillips contends that the City of Hitchcock passed ordinances 4 and 11 which governed the drilling for oil and gas within the City by creating drilling blocks providing that only one well could be drilled on any one block; that Phillips obtained a permit under these ordinances to drill Block 5 and did drill a producing gas well on Block 5; that under said ordinances, Mecom, who was a lessee under adjoining acreage, elected not to participate as a working interest owner in said well, but to receive the royalty and bonus money, as provided in said ordinances, in lieu of his working interest in the oil and gas; and by reason of these facts Phillips, as permittee, became vested with the title to the oil and gas attributable to the working interest in the lands described in Phillips' petition and prays for recovery of title to the oil and gas in and under said land.
Ordinance No. 4 is a comprehensive ordinance designed to control the drilling of oil and gas wells within the City of Hitchcock. Ordinance No. 11 amends Sections 6 and 9 or Ordiance No. 4.
Section 6 of Ordinance No. 4, for the purposes of this lawsuit, provides the conditions upon which any permit to drill a well within the city will be issued. It provides that the owner of any lots with whom the owner of a permit to drill has failed to reach agreement shall have the option to either (1) treat his interest as a working interest and contribute to the will cost, as provided, and share in the production as provided, or (2) to treat his interest as being leased to permittee, and receive a sum in cash equal, on a acreage basis, to the highest cash bonus per acre paid by the permittee for any lease covering lands within said drilling block; and to receive as a royalty a share of all oil and gas produced and saved from such well equal to one-sixth (1/6th) of the proportion of the whole quantity of oil so produced and saved that the number of square feet in the area owned by him bears to the number of square feet in such drilling block.
Section 1 or Ordinance No. 4 recites the risks inherent in oil and gas development, and generally states the purpose of the ordinance. The ordinance, if valid, and this Court is not here called upon to pass upon this question, was passed under the police power of the city to promote the health, safety and welfare of its citizens.
Phillips relied on its pleadings to show the nature of its suit and it introduced in evidence its original petition which set out the ordinances outlined above; that on April 5, 1961, Phillips, pursuant to said ordinances, was granted a permit to drill a gas well on the abovementioned Block 5, that Phillips drilled the well and completed it in August of 1961. That Mecom had three oil, gas and mineral leases each dated prior to April 6, 1960, covering land included within Block 5. That every notice provided by Ordinance No. 4, as amended, pertaining to the drilling of the well by Phillips in Block 5 was given and that Mecom failed and refused to make an election to participate as to working interest owners as provided in Section 6 of said ordinance, as amended, as to any interest in Block 5, and particularly with regard to the interest covered by the leases described. That Phillips is ready, willing and able to pay Mecom the sum per acre that he is entitled to by reason of the foregoing facts. That Phillips' well drilled on Block No. 5, under the terms and provisions of Ordinance No. 4, as amended, fixed the rights of the parties in said Block No. 5 as to the minerals produced from the Hitchcock Northeast 9100-foot Frio Field. That at the time Phillips drilled its well, the ordinances of the City of Hitchcock provided that no more than one well could be drilled to any producing formation, and that any permittee drilling any such well must agree to share production therefrom as set forth in said Ordinance No. 4. That any attempt to alter said ordinance to allow Mecom to drill a well on a tract of land within said Block 5 in the same field that Phillips' well is producing from the without requiring him to share such production with all the other owners within said Block 5, is arbitrary and capricious and deprives Phillips and every owner of working interest or royalty interest in Block 5 of their rights without due process of law. That Mecom has taken pretended oil and gas leases that purport to cover the same lands as covered by the leases described therein; that said leases were taken in disregard of the rights of Phillips; that Mecom threatens to drill a well on said leases in the Hitchcock Northeast 9100-foot Frio Field; and that such well would be wasteful and would not aid in way in the development of this land and that any such well would not recover any oil or gas that would not be produced through the present wells.
After Mecom had filed his plea of privilege and Phillips had filed a controverting plea and Mecom had filed a sworn reply to Phillips' controverting plea to Mecom's plea of privilege, Phillips filed its first amended original petition containing...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Adams
...1965, 381 U.S. 915, 85 S.Ct. 1538, 14 L.Ed.2d 435; Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. West, Tex.1974, 508 S.W.2d 812; Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mecom, Tex.Civ.App.1964, 375 S.W.2d 335, no writ; Lone Star Gas Co. v. Murchison, Tex.Civ.App.1962, 353 S.W.2d 870, writ ref'd n.r.e. With respect to deb......
-
ABRAXAS PETROLEUM v. HORNBURG, 08-98-00286-CV
...on or from the land. See Oldham v. Keaton, 597 S.W.2d 938, 942 (Tex.Civ.App.--Texarkana 1980, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mecom, 375 S.W.2d 335, 340 (Tex.Civ.App.--Austin 1964, no writ); Gulf Oil Corporation v. Horton, 143 S.W.2d 132, 134 (Tex.Civ.App.--Amarillo 1940, no w......
-
In re Wilson
...254 F.Supp. 114, 118 (W.D.La.1965); Onyx Refining Co. v. Evans Production Corp., 182 F.Supp. 253, 256 (N.D.Tex.1959); Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mecom, 375 S.W.2d 335 (Tex.Civ.App. — Austin 1964, no writ). The operating agreement attempts to give the operator a lien on the oil and gas produc......
-
Oldham v. Keaton
...to whom such waste is committed, by some other person who did not have title but may be rightfully in possession. Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mecom, 375 S.W.2d 335 (Tex.Civ.App. Austin 1964, no writ); Gulf Oil Corporation v. Horton, 143 S.W.2d 132 (Tex.Civ.App. Amarillo 1940, no writ). Althou......
-
CHAPTER 6 LOCAL REGULATION OF OIL AND GAS OPERATIONS: THE TEXAS EXPERIENCE
...1978 no writ). [18] .Klepak V,. Humble Oil & Refining Co., 177 S.W.2d 215 (CA 1944), writ ref;d. w.om.; Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mecom, 375 S.W.2d 335 (Tex.Civ.App.- Austin 1964). [19] .Klepak V,. Humble Oil & Refining Co., 177 S.W.2d 215 (CA 1944), writ ref;d. w.om [20] .Trail Enterprises......