Court Opinion

ID: 9685232
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:26:42.85645+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:03.530104
License: Public Domain

Lee, J.,
Dissenting.
For the same reasons stated in my dissent in the case of The Superior Oil Company, et al. v. Roy Beery, No. *73738,528,this day decided, I respectfully dissent in this ease.
Apr. 27, 1953
29 Adv. S. 46
64 So. 2d 355
ON SUGGESTION OF ERROR
McGehee, C. J.
In the former opinion rendered herein on February 23, 1953, it was stated that this case was a companion one to that of Superior Oil Company v. Boy Beery, No. 38.528, decided on the same day; that the controlling facts are substantially the same in the two cases. The opinion then called attention to the fact that this Court had theretofore adjudicated that the three gas units involved were, validly and legally established. Unit No. 10 of the Gwinville Gas Field was involved in the case of Green v. The Superior Oil Company, (Miss.) 59 So. 2d 100, and units 32 and 33 in said gas field were involved in The Superior Oil Company v. Foote, et al., 214 Miss. 857, 59 So. 2d 85.
It is now strongly urged on suggestion of error that the decision in the instant case should not be controlled by the decision rendered on February 23, 1953, in the case of The Superior Oil Company v. Boy Beery, No. 38.528, for the reason that in the Beery case, Unit No. 39 had been fully and completely established, and the gas allowables had been allocated to the respective tracts of land in the said Unit No. 39 prior to the enactment of Chap. 256, Laws of 1948, whereas Units Nos. 32 and 33 in the instant case were not established until after the enactment of the said act of 1948, since the proceedings for the establishment of Unit No. 32 were begun on April 23, 1948, and the first allowable order was rendered on September 20, 1948, and the proceedings for. the establishment of Unit No. 33 were begun on May 13, 1948, and ended with the first allowable order on October 20, 1948, and that, therefore, the act of 1948 limiting drilling units to 40 acres or less prohibited the *738establishment of these two units as containing 320 acres each.
However, the decision on the former appeal reported in 214 Miss. 857, 59 So. 2d 85, renders res judicata the question of whether or not these units' were legally established in 1948 as containing 320 acres each.
Moreover, the repealing clause contained in Chap. 256, Laws of 1948, whereby Chap. 117, Laws of 1932, and Chap. 305, Laws of 1936, were repealed, expressly provided that: “The repeal of said laws, however, shall not affect any rules, regulations, or orders heretofore made by the State Oil and Gas Board under the authority thereof, but all such rules, regulations, and orders shall be and remain valid and effective for a period of only six (6) months from the effective date of this act, and their validity and effectiveness shall be as full and to the same extent as if the same were made and promulgated under the authority of this act; . . . ”
Among the orders which were extended in their operation for the six months’ period were those of August 11, 1947, and September 11, 1947, providing for the establishment of gas drilling units of not more than 320 acres and requiring the owners, who were defined as oil and gas lessees, to pool their leases; and we held on February 23, 1953, in the case of The Superior Oil Company v. Beery, No. 38,528, that to require the oil and gas lessees to pool their leases in the establishment of a gas unit has the effect of extending the primary term of the leases where all of the lands in the unit are placed in production by being drained from the unit well prior to the expiration of the ten-year primary term of the lease.
Unit No. 10 was fully established prior to the enactment of Chap. 256, Laws of 1948, and as held in Green v. The Superior Oil Company, 59 So..2d 100, the legislation applicable thereto was contained in Chap. 117, Laws of 1932, and Chap. 305, Laws of 1936.
As to Units Nos. 32 and 33, the saving clause of the act of 1948 places any unit established within the period *739of six months from the effective date of the act in the same status as if they had been established under the rules and regulations or orders of the State Oil and G-as Board theretofore made, since the act of 1948, as heretofore shown, expressly declares that ‘ ‘ their validity and effectiveness shall be as full and to the same extent as if the same were made and promulgated under the authority of this act; . . . ” All of the units involved in this suit were fully and completely established, and all of the lands in each of the units were placed in production prior to the expiration of the ten-year primary term of the leases in question.
All other questions raised and argued in the briefs on the suggestion of error in the instant case have been answered in the opinion on the suggestion of error in The Superior Oil Company v. Roy Beery, No. 38,528, this day rendered.
Suggestion of error overruled.
Roberds, Kyle, Holmes, Arrington and Ethridge, JJ., concur. Hall J., took no part.