Edmonston v. Home Stake Oil & Gas Corporation

Home Stake (defendant) held a defeasible one-fourth mineral interest across both the "north half" and the "southeast quarter" of a section of land. In 1968, the Kansas Corporation Commission ordered a pooled production unit that included the southeast quarter but not the north half, with production anywhere in the unit counting as production on the whole unit for lease-extension purposes. Production on the southeast quarter itself ceased in 1973, though other wells within the pooled unit kept producing afterward; there was never any production on the north half. Edmonston (plaintiff), who bought the entire section, sued for a declaration that the pooling order did not extend Home Stake's interest in the north half, since the north half was never part of the pooled unit. The district court agreed, and Home Stake appealed.