Texas Oil & Gas Corporation v. Vela’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 federal appellate · 66 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 100 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[The parties] might have agreed that the royalty on gas produced from a gas well would be a fractional part of the amount realized by the lessee from its sale. Instead of doing so, however, they stipulated in plain terms that the lessee would pay one-eighth of the market price at the well of all gas sold or used off the premises. This clearly means the prevailing market price at the time of the sale or use.”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Holmes v. Kewanee Oil Co. · Exxon Corp. v. Middleton

2. ““ ‘pay to lessor, as royalty for gas from each well where gas only is found, while the same is being sold or used off of the premises, one-eighth of the market price at the wells of the amount so sold or used.’ ” p. 868.”

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Holmes v. Kewanee Oil Co. · Exxon Corp. v. Middleton

3. “As indicated above, the trial court found that the market price of the gas during the four-year period was 13.047$ per mcf. This finding, if it has any support in the evidence, must rest upon the testimony of Mr. Jack K. Baumel. Our statement concerning the witness and his testimony is taken largely from the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals. Baumel is a consultant petroleum and natural gas engineer who had been employed by the Railroad Commission of Texas and by other governmental agencies. He had been familiar with the Lopeno Field . for many years, and before testifying in this case he made a study of production and sales of gas from the field. The records of sales in the office of the Comptroller of Public Accounts were the principal source of his information, but he also considered the gas sales contracts made by the various producers in the field. Mr. Baumel ascertained the amounts of gas sold from each well in the field during the four-year period and the amount received for the same. This included production from the Upper Queen City sand, the 2,700-foot Queen City sand, and the Wilcox sand. By mathematical calculation he determined that the average price received for all gas sold during the period, except that marketed under the Nor-dan & Morris contracts, was 16.047$ per mcf. He stated that the amounts received pursuant to the Nordan & Morris contracts were disregarded because such contracts were too far out of line. Since the gas from the Upper Queen City sand ”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Exxon Corp. v. Middleton · 428 So. 2d 798 - Shell Oil Co. v. Williams, Inc.