Railroad Commission of Texas v. Rowan & Nichols Oil Co.

The petitioners’ proration order is challenged not merely as unfair or unreasonable but as confiscatory of the respondent’s property. Upon the allegations of the bill, the District Court had jurisdiction. Although the problem of proration presented technical and difficult questions, and although the Commission was vested with a broad discretion in dealing with them, these facts could not justify the court’s abdicating its jurisdiction to test the Commission’s order. The case was tried de novo and neither the full record made before the Commission nor its findings appear in the evidence,…