London v. Merriman

Dorothy London (defendant), who held the executive right on two adjacent tracts along with royalty interests of her own, leased both tracts together in a single oil and gas lease containing a pooling clause; the Merrimans (plaintiffs) held a separate nonparticipating one-sixteenth royalty on the western tract, which produced no wells, while the eastern tract produced gas. The Merrimans sought and obtained a Texas Railroad Commission order in 1983 pooling their royalty interest with London's, letting them share eastern-tract royalties starting from the Commission's 1984 order date; they then sued to also recover royalties that had accrued before that order, arguing their Commission suit had ratified the pooled lease and made them a party to it retroactively. The trial court agreed, and London appealed.