Turman Oil Co. v. Roberts

• Decision Date: 22 July 1936
• Docket Number: No. 8496.,8496.
• Citation: 96 S.W.2d 724
• Parties: TURMAN OIL CO. v. ROBERTS et al.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 724

96 S.W.2d 724

TURMAN OIL CO. v. ROBERTS et al.

No. 8496.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Austin.

July 22, 1936.

Rehearing Denied September 23, 1936.

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

Proceeding by J. M. Roberts and others before the Railroad Commission to obtain a permit to drill an oil well as an exception to the basic rule, wherein the Turman Oil Company filed a petition to review a judgment of the district court setting aside an order of the Railroad Commission denying the permit. From a judgment sustaining a plea in abatement and dismissing the petition, the Turman Oil Company appeals.

Reversed and remanded, with directions.

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

Pollard & Lawrence and Wm. S. Reeves, all of Tyler, for appellees.

BLAIR, Justice.

This litigation arose as follows: Appellee J. M. Roberts owned an interest in an oil and gas lease on a 1.6-acre tract of land in the East Texas oil field in Rusk county, and applied for a permit to drill a second well thereon, which the Railroad Commission denied on December 17, 1934. On the same date, Roberts appealed to the district court of Travis county, seeking to set aside the order as being unreasonable and unjust. On December 20, 1934, the commission, acting by and through the Attorney General, filed an answer consisting of a general demurrer and general denial; and on the same day the court, without the intervention of a jury, heard the case, set the order aside as being unjust and unreasonable, and perpetually restrained the commission from in any wise interfering with the drilling of the well and the producing and marketing of oil and gas therefrom. The judgment recited that evidence was heard, but no record was made of it, and the commission gave notice of appeal therefrom. Later, on January 26, 1935, within the same term of court at which the judgment was entered, appellant Turman Oil Company filed in said cause an equitable bill or petition, in the nature of a bill of review, complaining of J. M. Roberts, plaintiff in the cause, and the Railroad Commission and its individual members, alleging that it owned an adjacent lease situated only 359 feet from the well in question, and alleging specifically the manner in which it was interested in the controversy affected by the well; that the judgment was procured by the fraud of Roberts, in that he alleged that he owned a lease on the 1.6 acre tract; that adjoining his lease to the west was another lease of like area owned by A. D. Roberts; that A. D. Roberts had drilled two wells on such lease; and that therefore J. M. Roberts was entitled to drill a second well upon his lease to protect same from drainage by A. D. Robert's lease. That these allegations were untrue, and that in fact appellee J. M. Roberts, A. D. Roberts, L. E. Roberts, and M. E. Roberts each owned an undivided one-fourth interest in the two tracts specifically referred to, and two other tracts which they owned and operated and had owned and operated for more than a year as one single 6.8-acre lease, and on which they had already procured five wells. It was further alleged that Roberts made similar representations to the court, thus causing it to appear that appellant's property did not adjoin his 1.6-acre tract; and that as a consequence of such fraud no notice was given to appellant of the application for the permit to drill the well, and he was not made a party and had no notice of the filing of the suit to set aside the order of the commission denying the permit. That the same day the commission denied the permit Roberts filed his petition to set aside the order; and three days later the Attorney General filed an answer on behalf of the Railroad Commission, and on that same date judgment was entered after a short hearing in the judge's office; and that the whole method of handling the application and suit was obviously designed to prevent the interested adjoining leaseholders from knowing anything about it, and to prevent the court from knowing the true facts.

In answer, the Attorney General filed for the Railroad Commission a general denial and general demurrer. Appellee Roberts filed a plea in abatement, urging that appellant oil company was not a party to said action; that it was not a necessary party to the action; and that no party entitled to a review of the judgment was petitioning therefor. Without the introduction of any testimony, the trial court sustained the plea in abatement and dismissed the equitable petition, in the nature of a bill of review, filed by appellant Turman Oil Company in said cause of J. M. Roberts v. Railroad Commission of Texas et al.; hence this appeal.

We have reached the conclusion that the trial court erred in sustaining the plea in abatement on the grounds urged, that is, that appellant oil company was not a party to said suit and judgment, and was not a necessary party to the same, and was therefore not a party entitled to review the judgment because of the fraud alleged. It may be conceded that the contention of Roberts and the Railroad Commission that a stranger to a judgment cannot invoke the jurisdiction of the court to set it...