Court Opinion

ID: 9761196
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:34:11.86175+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:20.861676
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
STEAKLEY, Justice.
There are stated misconstructions of the Court’s opinion in Getty’s Motion for Rehearing and in some of the supporting briefs by friends of the Court. Some we will noitce. We do not hold that a mineral lessee’s surface use may be found unreasonable without regard to the surface uses otherwise available to the surface owner. The reasonableness of a surface use by the lessee is to be determined by a consideration of the circumstances of both and, as stated, the surface owner is under the burden of establishing the unreasonableness of the lessee’s surface use in this light. The reasonableness of the method and manner of using the dominant mineral estate may be measured by what are usual, customary and reasonable practices in the industry under like circumstances of time, place and servient estate uses. What might be a reasonable use of the surface by the mineral lessee on a bald prairie used only for grazing by the servient surface owner could be unreasonable within an existing residential area of the City of Houston, or on the campus of the University of Texas, or in the middle of an irrigated farm. What we have said is that in determining the issue of whether a particular manner of use of the dominant mineral estate is reasonable or unreasonable, we cannot ignore the condition of the surface *628itself and the uses then being made by the servient surface owner. When we take judicial notice of the relatively few reported cases of conflict which have arisen between the two estates on the more than 378,000 oil and gas wells that have been drilled, operated and produced in this State, many of them within cities, parks, lakes, and bays and on farms, prison lands and industrial sites, it is indicated that the usual and customary practice of the oil and gas operators of this State is to take due consideration of the uses being made by the servient surface owner. There is evidence of this in the alternative methods employed by Amerada and Adobe under their leases of other portions of the Jones tract. As indicated in the Court’s opinion, if the manner of use selected by the dominant mineral lessee is the only reasonable, usual and customary method that is available for developing and producing the minerals on this particular land then the owner of the servient estate must yield. However, if there are other usual, customary and reasonable methods practiced in the industry on similar lands put to similar uses which would not interfere with the existing uses being made by the servient surface owner, it could be unreasonable for the lessee to employ an interfering method or manner of use. These considerations involve questions to be resolved by the trier of the facts.
A single or a multiple issue submission may be in order depending on the facts and circumstances in a given situation. The evidence and circumstances here are such that a proper initial inquiry would be whether Jones had reasonable means of developing his land for agricultural purposes other than by use of the sprinkler system in question. If this is found to be the case, Jones must yield to the surface use ádopted by Getty since it is not contended that the beam-type pumps installed by Getty are otherwise unreasonable. If such is not found to be the case, Jones is under the burden of a second showing that Getty’s present manner and method of use on this land is unreasonable because there are alternative methods used in the industry on this type of property which are available to Getty whereby it can produce its wells without interfering with the existing uses of the servient estate being made by Jones. If this is found to be the case, Getty is bound to convert to a noninterfering use. We have not held, as some have stated, that the issue is a question of inconvenience to the surface owner. To the contrary, the instruction accompanying the special issue submitted to the jury in this case was ruled erroneous because it indicated exactly this.
We also make clear, in response to Jones’ Motion for Rehearing, that the ruling of the court of civil appeals with respect to the admissibility of evidence concerning the acts of Adobe in placing its pumps in cellars, with which we agreed, is the law of the case upon retrial.
The Motions for Rehearing are overruled.
Concurring opinion by GREENHILL, J.
WALKER, J., concurs in the Order.
McGEE, J., dissenting.