Shell Petroleum Corp. v. Railroad Commission

BLAIR, Justice.

This is a rule 37 case. It ‘arose as an appeal from an order of the Railroad Commission granting a permit to drill an oil well on a .53-acre tract of land in Gregg county. The trial in the district court sustained the commission’s order granting the permit; hence this appeal.

The controlling question is whether an oral partition of lands, later ratified by the deeds of the partitioners prior to the discovery of oil in the East Texas oil field, constituted a voluntary subdivision of the .53-acre tract from a 68%-acre tract, in violation of rule 37. We have reached the conclusion…