| Show FEDERAL COURT JUDGE HOLDS TITLE TO OIL UNDER STREAM IS VALID the state of utah and the texas production company on friday won the first of bull brought against JT J T L sh aci the midwest explorations conn pany and others to quiet title to the oil rights of the colorado river bed la the maib ic gion the f the deafen a for a dismissal of the case was denied by judge tillmon I 1 of the federal court at salt lake city the defense was given sixty days to answer the original complaint and the case will probably be set for trial next fall if it is finally shown that the government retained the river bed title then the government oil permit tees and lessels lessees will have the exclusive right to drill on the nver bottoms instead of the texas company which claims to have obtained its exploration rights from the state the plaintiffs are laying claici to the bed of the colorado river where this stream crosses the oil leases and prospecting permits of the defendants through the enabling act and as a rule of law which they assert has been applied in other states and which gives to the states the right to the beds of navigable streams the state of utah granted oil leases on the stream bed to the texas production company under the assume tion that the rights to the nver bed had passed to the state since the colorado in the region in question is navigable the defendants asked for a bismis al of the case on the following grounds that since the government is vitally affected it must ibe made a party to the suit in order that the decision of the court be binding that the river bed never did pass to the state and further that whatever title to the river bed might have gone to the state was long ago passed by it back to the government in explanation of these contentions counsel for the defense pointed out that since the issue to be decided through the case is whether the government retained title to the river bed or whether it went to the state the government must be made a party furthermore since suit cannot be brought directly against the united states without the batters lat consent the present case cannot continue unless the government is willing to be brought into it according to the contention on the second contention the de tense held that under better rules of law the river bed never went to the state under the equal rights provis ion of the enabling act even if rights did originally pass to the state they maintained they were subsequently passed on by it to the gov eminent by adopting the common law and three early decisions of the supreme court of the territory and state of utah the state acknowledged the theory that beds only of navigable streams which are under tidewater pass to the states while tho beds of the same streams even though navigable but which are not under tidewater pass to the riparian owners in the case of the colorado nv er it was claimed the riparian owner was the united states in overruling the motion for als friday judge johnson held that the beds of navigable streams belong to the state the principal issue to come up at thac trial theia will be to determine if the colorado river at the point in question can be classified as navigable if it is so found the leases of the texas corn pany which were obtained from the state will be valid and the govern maent permit tees and lessels lessees will be found to have no rights to drill for oil on the river bed some time after oil was discovered in the moab region the state grant on page eight STATE WINS FIRST ROUND IN continued fromi first page ed leases on the nver bottoms nearl the discovery well to the texas com pany the government however resisted the right of the company to drill on the river bed and the present suit was instituted to settle the question the defense in making the motion for dismissal contended that since the united states was an indispensable party to the suit it would have to be iliade a party litigant that the title to the bed of the stream did not pass to the state and that even if it did go to the state in the first place it reverted to the states under he riparian ownership doctrine of the common law which it was claimed had been adopted byi the state of utah judge johnson ruled that the united states is not an indispensable party to the suit and that on the pleading there is nothing to indicate that the government even claims that the bed of the nver did not pass to the state in overruling the sec ond contention the court held that the supreme court has decided that the beds of navigable streams be long to the state in the case of the state of utah through inherent sov of the enabling act j in answering the third contention judge johnson said he was unable to see that the supreme court of state of utah had adopted the corn irion law provision that the beds 0 navigable streams pass to the apar lan owners the court stated tha although the english common law makes such a provision it is no necessarily binding in this case al though the common law may be cm bodied in the laws of the state |
