Sand Springs Home v. Clemens

1 This is a suit in equity instituted by D.M. Clemens, as plaintiff, against Sand Springs Home, a corporation,
as defendant, to cancel an oil and gas lease because of failure to diligently develop and operate. The parties will be referred
to as they appeared in the trial court. 2 The facts appear in the record by stipulation and by uncontroverted testimony of witnesses. The lands involved
consist of a 120 acre tract in Creek County, Oklahoma, which comprises a quarter section, less the northwest forty acres thereof.
On August 29, 1938, plaintiff's grantor leased the property for oil and gas purposes to the defendant for a primary term of
one year and as long thereafter as oil or gas was produced therefrom. Some four months later a well was completed on the southwest
forty acres from which, through the years, there has been a small continuous production of oil, totaling some five or six
barrels daily at the time this case was tried. In 1939 a well was drilled on the southeast forty acres which was a dry hole.
No other wells were drilled although approximately twenty years earlier a dry hole had been drilled by other parties on the
remaining northeast forty acres.