Court Opinion

ID: 9588239
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:31:45.470117+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:00:57.862771
License: Public Domain

McINTYRE, Chief Justice
(concurring).
I concur in the result being reached only because Simpson did not take a timely appeal from the decision rendered by the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on April 8, 1969, following the *403hearing held by it March 11, 1969. Absent such a timely appeal, the action of the Commission became final and not subject to a subsequent collateral attack.
When the Commission, by its action in November 1967 and again in December 1968, left it in the alternative for drilling and spacing 80-acre units to be either horizontal or vertical, it only invited future trouble. Then, when it undertook to decide between the horizontal or vertical after wells had been drilled and tested, its decision almost certainly had to be arbitrary. The decision would appear to be purely a matter of deciding whether the operator or the landowner was to be favored.
There is nothing in the record to indicate that structure, reserves or any other facts favored horizontal rather than vertical units. Indeed, Simpson offered to submit expert evidence bearing on the matter, and the Commission refused to hear it. This tends to indicate an arbitrary determination.
Regardless of arbitrary action by the Commission, however, I must agree with Justice Parker that the Commission’s April 8, 1969 decision became final and unimpeachable when Simpson failed to take a timely appeal under the Administrative Procedure Act.