INLAND DEV. CO. v. BEVERIDGE

INLAND DEV. CO. v. BEVERIDGE
1939 OK 200
90 P.2d 942
185 Okla. 174
Case Number: 28003
Decided: 04/11/1939
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

INLAND DEVELOPMENT CO.
v.
BEVERIDGE, Acting Bldg. Supt., et al.

Syllabus

¶0 1. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS--OIL AND GAS--Zoning Ordinances Regulating Drilling of Wells--Application for Permit to Dell on Zoned Block--Jurisdiction of City Board of Adjustment and District Court on Appeal to Adjudicate Rights Arising Between Nonassenting Lot Owners and Permittee.
By virtue of sections 6170-6179, O. S. 1931, 11 Okla. Stat. Ann. secs. 401-410, and the zoning ordinances of Oklahoma City enacted pursuant thereto regulating the drilling of wells for oil and gas, the board of adjustment if said city, and the district court on appeal, in a proceeding upon application for permit to drill in any block zoned for such purpose, may adjudicate all the legal and equitable rights arising between nonassenting lot owners on the one band and the permittee on the other with relation to the question of participation in the operations and the bonuses and royalties to be paid such owners by the permittee.
2. SAME--Power of District Court to Award Nonassenting Lot Owners Bonuses and Royalties or to Permit Them to Participate in Operations Upon Posting Pond to Cover Proportionate Part of Expense.
In a proceeding for permit to drill a well for oil and gas in any area zoned for that purpose in Oklahoma City, the district court in the exercise of equitable powers conferred by sections 6170-6179, O. S. 1931, 11 Okla. Stat. Ann. secs. 401-410, and the zoning ordinances enacted pursuant thereto may award to nonassenting lot owners as against the permittee reasonable bonuses and royalties or, in the alternative, permit such owners to elect to participate in the operations upon posting bond within a stated time guaranteeing to the operator his proportionate part of the expense thereof.
3. SAME--Nonassenting Lot Owners Delaying to Elect to Participate in Drilling Operations Held to Have Elected to Accept Bonus and Royalties.
Where a nonassenting lot owner in a block zoned for oil and gas development in Oklahoma City fails within the time fixed by the district court to elect whether he shall participate in drilling operations or accept the bonus and royalties as decreed by the court on appeal of proceedings for permit to drill, such owner will be held to have elected to accept the bonus and royalties.

Appeal from District Court, Oklahoma County; G. H. Giddings, Jr., Judge.

Proceeding by Inland Development Company for permit to drill a well for oil and gas in the City of Oklahoma City; application being filed with J. L. Beveridge, acting building superintendent of city; later appealed to the board of adjustment; and from order of the board appeal taken to the district court. From a judgment of the district court granting the permit and fixing the rights of the parties, the applicant and certain of the lot owners appeal. Affirmed.

Edwards & Robinson, Coleman Hayes, and J. Walker Fields, for protesting property owners.
Keaton, Wells & Johnston, for plaintiff in error.
A. L. Jeffrey, Municipal Counselor, and Robert L. Berry, Asst. Municipal Counselor, for defendants in error.

GIBSON, J.

¶1 The district court on appeal from an order of the board of adjustment of Oklahoma City granted to the respondent Inland Development Company a permit to drill a well for oil and gas in a certain area zoned for that purpose in said city. The respondent and certain protesting lot owners were dissatisfied with the manner in which the court's judgment disposed of their equities, and have appealed.

¶2 This case involves a construction of sections 6170-6179, O. S. 1931, 11 Okla. Stat. Ann. secs. 401-410, and certain zoning ordinances of Oklahoma City enacted pursuant thereto, and the questions here raised have been fully considered and disposed of in Amis v. Bryan Petroleum Corporation, No. 28022, this day decided, 185 Okla. 206, 90 P.2d 936. The law as there announced is controlling in the instant case, and Is adopted and applied here.

¶3 Upon failure of the protestants to elect within the time designated by the trial court, whether to accept the bonuses and royalties as fixed by the judgment or to participate in the operations, said protestants are presumed to have elected to accept the bonuses and royalties. The judgment is affirmed accordingly.