Scofield v. La Gloria Oil & Gas Co.

The Court, by a begrudging approach out of keeping with the congressional policy on percentage depletion so often reaffirmed, and out of harmony with the developmental judicial accommodation of the doctrine to the practical needs and realities of the oil business, not the least of which is Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Southwest Exploration Co., 1956, 350 U.S. 308, 76 S.Ct. 395, 100 L.Ed. 347, denies the existence of an economic interest in La Gloria on grounds which, to me, are unrealistic, artificial and hypertechnical. In brief, it is because (1) under the contracts involved La…