Endicott v. Phillips Petroleum Co. (172 F.2d 372, 1949)

HUXMAN, Circuit Judge.

This was an action filed in the District Court of Kingman County, Kansas, by Gilbert R. Endicott and Jeannette Endicott, the appellants, against Phillips Petroleum Company, a corporation, appellee, and against Plains Exploration Company, a corporation, and Nebraska-Wyoming Oil Company, a corporation, to cancel certain oil and gas leases covering the Northwest Quarter and the North Half of the Southwest Quarter of Section 21, Township 28 South, Range 9, West of the 6th P.M., and for damages.

The complaint alleged, in substance, that plaintiffs were the owners of the above described real estate, subject only to outstanding oil and gas leases; that Phillips Petroleum Company was the record owner of the lessee rights in and to the said oil and gas leases, except and subject to an assignment “from said Phillips Petroleum Company to defendant Plains Exploration Company of a portion of such lessee rights covering the North of the Southwest J4 of said Section 21, and except and subject to an assignment by said Plains Exploration Company to defendant Nebraska Wyoming Oil Company of a portion of the lessee rights respecting said 80 acres last described, all of said three defendants being record owners of lessee rights therein and claiming ownership in the aggregate of all of the lessee rights therein, defendants Plains Exploration Company and Nebraska Wyoming Oil Company being proper and necessary parties to a complete determination and settlement of the matters and things involved herein including the removal of the claimed liens and clouds upon the title of the plaintiffs to their sai