Ada Lou Robert King Et Vir v. A. G. Swanson

On the 27th day of September, 1937, H. T. Carlile and wife executed an oil and gas lease to A. G. Swanson covering a tract of land in Stonewall County, Texas. On December 23, 1937, Swanson assigned the lease to F. B. Parriott. On March 10, 1938, Parriott assigned the lease to Stonewall Oil Company. On the 15th day of October, 1938, Stonewall Oil Company assigned to A. G. Swanson an undivided 1/16th of the 7/8ths working interest in the oil produced and sold from said land, until Swanson received $90,000. Thereafter, A. G. Swanson transferred to Carl S. Shoults a 1/3rd interest in said oil payment. Stonewall Oil Company assigned the lease to Jack B. Robert, who in turn assigned same to his daughter, Ada Lou Robert King, who is the present owner of said lease. This suit was instituted by A. G. Swanson against Ada Lou Robert King and her husband, Frank J. King, for damages for failure to reasonably develop said lease and drill an offset well thereon and, also, sued for damages because Ada Lou Robert King had released to the landowner a portion of the acreage covered by said lease. A jury found in answer to special issues that Ada Lou Robert King should have drilled on the Carlile fee an offset to the Patterson well within a reasonable time after its completion, in September, 1951; that Ada Lou Robert King had not acted in good faith in failing to drill an offset well; that had Ada Lou Robert King drilled the offset well it would have produced oil; that $2,500 would compensate plaintiff for the damages sustained by him by the failure to drill such offset well; that Ada Lou Robert King should not have drilled an additional well on the Carlile fee other than one offset well and that Ada Lou Robert King had acted in good faith in failing to drill an additional well other than an offset well.