Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/286/210/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 16:09:05+00:00

Document:
1. In Oklahoma, as generally elsewhere, the owners of the land containing an oil and gas pool do not have absolute title to those minerals as they permeate below the surface, but each has the right, through wells on his own land, to take all the oil and gas that he may be able to reduce to possession, including that coming from the land of the others. P. 286 U. S. 233.
owners to speed production in self-defense, would cause them to add to that waste and cause them to waste oil on the surface by producing it in excess of their means of transport and proper storage and their market demand. P. 286 U. S. 233.
Held that, in this case, it is not shown that the rule of proration prescribed in § 4, or any other provision involved, amounts to or authorizes arbitrary interference with private business or property rights or that such statutory rule is not reasonably calculated to prevent the wastes specified in § 3. P. 286 U. S. 234.
7. Proration orders applying to the production of oil but not to sales or transportation held consistent with the commerce clause of the national Constitution. P. 286 U. S. 235.
8. An order of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission prorating the production of oil from a common source to prevent waste will not be set aside at the suit of one of the producers when not shown to be arbitrary or discriminatory in fact merely because information as to production etc., upon which the Commission acted, was procured by other producers in the same field, serving the Commission without pay, and by an umpire whose salary and expenses, in default of legislative appropriations, were paid by such producers. P. 286 U. S. 236.
9. Since a proration order, though valid under the Oklahoma statute at one time, may, through change of conditions, cease to be so, and may become unjust and arbitrary at a later time, denial of an injunction will not preclude the plaintiff from applying again on a different state of facts. P. 286 U. S. 236.
10. To warrant an injunction to restrain criminal proceedings under a state statute as unconstitutionally affecting property rights, there must be a present danger that such proceedings will be taken. P. 286 U. S. 237.
11. In a suit attacking the constitutionality of administrative orders made under a state statute, held that the federal court had authority to stay their enforcement pending an appeal from its order denying a temporary injunction. P. 286 U. S. 239.
(1) That a proceeding under the section, taken in a state court against the plaintiff in a pending suit in the federal court, was properly restrained by the latter pending its final decision on the validity of provisions of the statute and orders made under it. P. 286 U. S. 239.
(4) As such, it is void under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it purports to punish violations of regulatory provisions of the Act, §§ 1, 3, 4, (not orders of the Commission) which are too vague and indefinite to afford a standard of conduct. P. 286 U. S. 243.
pressure available for lifting the oil to the surface, and the unreasonable and wasteful depletion of a common supply of gas and oil to the injury to others entitled to resort to and take from the same pool. Ohio Oil Co. v. Indiana, 177 U. S. 190; Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U. S. 61, 220 U. S. 77; Bandini Co. v. Superior Court, 284 U. S. 8; Brown v. Spilman, 155 U. S. 665, 155 U. S. 669; Walls v. Midland Carbon Co., 254 U. S. 300, 254 U. S. 323; Rich v. Doneghey, 71 Okl. 204, 177 P. 86; People v. Associated Oil Co., 211 Cal. 93, 100 et seq., 294 P. 717.
Trust Co., 158 U. S. 601, 158 U. S. 635; Reagan v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., 154 U. S. 362, 154 U. S. 395-396; Field v. Clark, 143 U. S. 649, 143 U. S. 695-696, allowed to be produced the full amount of the that the invalidity of any part of the Act shall not in any manner affect the remaining portions. That discloses an intention to make the Act divisible, and creates a presumption that, eliminating invalid parts, the legislature would have been satisfied with what remained, and that the scheme of regulation derivable from the other provisions would have been enacted without regard to § 2. Williams v. Standard Oil Co., 278 U. S. 235, 278 U. S. 242; Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22; Utah Power & Light Co. v. Pfost, ante, p. 286 U. S. 165. The orders involved here were made under other sections which provide a complete scheme for carrying into effect, through action of the Commission, the general rules laid down in §§ 3 and 4 for the prevention of waste. See Julian Oil & Royalties Co. v. Capshaw, 145 Okl. 237, 243, 292 P. 841. The validity of § 2 need not be considered.
2. Plaintiff contends that the Act and proration orders operate to burden interstate commerce in crude oil and its products in violation of the commerce clause. It is clear that the regulations prescribed and authorized by the Act and the proration established by the Commission apply only to production, and not to sales or transportation of crude oil or its products. Such production is essentially a mining operation, and therefore is not a part of interstate commerce, even though the product obtained is intended to be and in fact is immediately shipped in such commerce. Oliver Iron Co. v. Lord, 262 U. S. 172, 262 U. S. 178; Hope Gas Co. v. Hall, 274 U. S. 284, 274 U. S. 288; Foster-Fountain Packing Co. v. Haydel, 278 U. S. 1, 278 U. S. 10; Utah Power & Light Co. v. Pfost, supra. No violation of the commerce clause is shown.
such affirmance will not prevent it in an appropriate suit, a different state of facts being shown to exist, from having an injunction to restrain the enforcement of any order proved to be not authorized by the Act or unjust and arbitrary and to operate to plaintiff's prejudice. Cf. Euclid v. Ambler Co., 272 U. S. 365, 272 U. S. 395.
Equity jurisdiction will be exercised to enjoin the threatened enforcement of a state law which contravenes the Federal Constitution whenever it is essential in order effectually to protect property rights and the rights of persons against injuries otherwise irremediable, and in such a case, a person who, as an officer of the state, is clothed with the duty of enforcing its laws and who threatens and is about to commence proceedings, either civil or criminal, to enforce such a law against parties affected may be enjoined from such action by a federal court of equity. Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U. S. 197, 263 U. S. 214, and cases cited. The burden was upon plaintiff seeking to invoke that rule definitely to show that, in order to protect its property rights, it was necessary to restrain defendants from enforcing § 8. Indeed, the record before us indicates that plaintiff did not show that its rights were directly affected by any danger of prosecution under § 8, and therefore had no standing to invoke equity jurisdiction against its enforcement. Oliver Iron Co. v. Lord, supra, 262 U. S. 180-181; Massachusetts v. Mellon, 262 U. S. 447, 262 U. S. 488; Aetna Insurance Co. v. Hyde, 275 U. S. 440, 275 U. S. 446 et seq. Undoubtedly § 8, if invalid, may be severed from other parts of the Act without affecting the provisions under which the prorations were made. Ohio Tax Cases, 232 U. S. 576, 232 U. S. 594. It follows that the lower court erred in passing upon the validity of that section, and the decree will be modified to declare that no question as to § 8 was before the court.
Sections 3498, 3499, C.O.S.1921; Planters' Cotton & Ginning Co. v. West Bros., 82 Okl. 145, 147, 198 P. 855. And § 8 declares that, "in addition to any penalty" that may be imposed by the Commission for contempt, one directly or indirectly "violating the provisions of this act" shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be punished by fine or imprisonment. And, similarly, the liability under § 9 is for "violating the provisions of this act," and is "in addition to any penalty" imposed by § 8. Both deal with an act already committed. Moreover, liability under § 9 is not limited to seizure and operation of the offender's wells, but extends to the marketing of his oil. Absolute liability arises from a single transgression, and prosecution therefor may be had after all occasion for restraint of production has ceased. There is nothing in the Act by which the duration of the receivership may be determined. An owner whose wells are so seized may not, as of right, have production reduced or withheld to await a better demand or have any voice as to quantities to be produced, or continue to have his oil transported by means of his own pipelines or other facilities, or have it sent to his own refinery or delivered in fulfillment of his contracts. Plainly such a taking deprives the owner of property without compensation, even if the moneys received for oil sold less expenses are accounted for by the receiver. The suit is prosecuted by the state to redress a public wrong denounced as crime. The provisions of § 9 are not consistent with any purpose other than to inflict punishment for violation of the Act, and they must be deemed as intended to impose additional penalties upon offenders having oil producing wells. Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616, 116 U. S. 634; United States v. Reisinger, 128 U. S. 398, 128 U. S. 402; Huntington v. Attrill, 146 U. S. 657, 146 U. S. 667-668.
In the light of our decisions, it appears upon a mere inspection that these general words and phrases are so vague and indefinite that any penalty prescribed for their violation constitutes a denial of due process of law. It is not the penalty itself that is invalid, but the exaction of obedience to a rule or standard that is so vague and indefinite as to be really no rule or standard at all. United States v. L. Cohen Grocery, 255 U. S. 81, 255 U. S. 89; Small Co. v. Am. Sugar Rfg. Co., 267 U. S. 233, 267 U. S. 239; Connally v. General Construction Co., supra; Cline v. Frink Dairy Co., 274 U. S. 445, 274 U. S. 454; Smith v. Cahoon, 283 U. S. 553, 283 U. S. 564.
"§ 2. That the taking of crude oil or petroleum from any oil-bearing sand or sands in the Oklahoma at a time when there is not a market demand therefor at the well at a price equivalent to the actual value of such crude oil or petroleum is hereby prohibited, and the actual value of such crude oil or petroleum at any time shall be the average value as near as may be ascertained in the United states at retail of the byproducts of such crude oil or petroleum when refined less the cost and a reasonable profit in the business of transporting, refining and marketing the same, and the Corporation Commission of this state is hereby invested [sic] with the authority and power to investigate and determine from time to time the actual value of such crude oil or petroleum by the standard herein provided, and when so determined said Commission shall promulgate its findings by its orders duly made and recorded, and publish the same in some newspaper of general circulation in the state. [§ 7955.]"
"§ 10. That the invalidity of any section, sub-division, clause, or sentence of this act shall not in any manner effect [sic] the validity of the remaining portion thereof. [§ 7963.]"

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