Court Opinion

ID: 9831227
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 20:56:20.393601+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:32.835064
License: Public Domain

. On Motion for Rehearing.
Appellee, in his motion for rehearing, points out certain inaccuracies in our original opinion which we now correct:
1. There was in fact no permit issued by the Railroad Commission to the Atlantic Oil Company on the west or the several companies on the east of appellee’s land. The procedure seems to be that, where rule 37 is complied with, no .permit to drill is 'necessary. It is only where the owner desires an *589exception to rule 37 that application is made to the commission. The wells of the Atlantic Company were drilled in strict accordance with rule 37. The wells of the companies holding leaseholds to the east of appellee’s land were drilled in attempted accordance with rule 37, under the mistaken assumption that the west line of those holdings was coincident with the east line of the Atlantic holdings. In view of the fact that these wells were drilled in good faith under these circumstances, no action was taken by the Railroad Commission for violation of rule 37.
2. Our statement that appellees were first given permission to drill two wells and later two additional wells was based upon our construction of the second order, which provided that it was amendatory of the first order. Our attention is called to the fact that this matter is cleared up in the pleadings of the Railroad Commission which show that the second order was merely intended to relocate the two wells permitted under the first order. To correct this error, we now find that under the two orders appellee was granted permission to drill two wells 150 feet and 1,220 feet, respectively, from the north line.
Appellee contends that under this corrected statement of the record we should affirm the trial court’s holding that the order was unreasonable as applied to appellee’s land. We do not concur in this contention. The first order authorized one well near the center of the tract and the other near its south end. The'evidence shows that a well at the latter location would have been of no value and would not have been drilled. The lease was most valuable at the northern end of the tract and the value decreased toward the south. The case was manifestly tried upon the theory of the sufficiency of the two wells authorized in the second order of the commission to meet the test of reasonableness. We find that the two wells in the second order, placed as they were, met the same condition as to fairness, justness, and reasonableness which in our original opinion we found with reference to the four wells under our original construction of the two orders.
With the above corrections in the statement in our original opinion, the motion for rehearing is overruled.
Original opinion corrected. Motion overruled.