Wagner & Brown, Ltd. v. Sheppard

One observer has estimated that 85 percent of the 27,000 wells drilled in the East Texas oil field in the first half of the 20th century were unnecessary — resulting in a huge waste of money and natural resources. 1 As one means of reducing ex cessive drilling, the Texas Legislature provided for voluntary pooling in 1949, 2 and compulsory pooling in 1965. 3

Since then, this Court has never addressed how a pool of producing properties is affected if a lease in the pool expires. In this case, the courts below held that expiration of a lease removes those minerals from the pool and bars recovery…