O. C. Smith v. Humble Oil and Refining Company, Inc.

This is an appeal from an order of the district court dismissing plaintiffs’ complaint for lack of jurisdiction. We affirm.

The litigation before us had its genesis in a 1934 trespass to try title suit brought in a Texas state court. In that suit Humble Oil and Refining Company, defendant herein, sought to clear the title to certain land in East Texas on which it had an oil lease. That suit apparently resulted in a determination that Humble had a valid leasehold in the land and that title to the disputed property rested in parties other than the plaintiffs’ predecessors in title.

In 1965…