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Show 31 Litigations . . . . Land Owners Win Oil Case In Federal Court Ruling Judge Willis W. Ritter, of the Federal Court, on Friday, June 18, 1953, handed down a dici-sion dici-sion in favor of local land owners, own-ers, in thirty-two separate litigations, liti-gations, wherein Phillips Petroleum Petrol-eum Company was plaintiff and eighty-six owners of mineral interests in property, located in Bennett, Utah, were defendants. This decision will have a far-reaching far-reaching effect in oil circles. Judge Ritter held that unit agreements wre invalid, that they violated the rule against perpetuities. This rule is a common com-mon law rule holding that any interest in property which continues con-tinues for longer than a life in being and twenty-one years is void. The court further held that the unit agreement was invalid, for the reason that it was uncertain un-certain and indefinite, and did not establish standards which were determinable at the time the lease was signed. On Tuesday, June 16, 1953, the following land owners: J. A. Houston,. Clair Haslem, Ottis Horrocks, Floyd E. Harmston, Winfred Long, John H. Haslem, Fern Houston, George E. Houston, Hous-ton, LeRoy Murphy, Marvin Hamaker, Mrs. Isobel Harmston, Heber A- Peterson, Jesse C. Birtcher, Russel Phillips, and Boyd Winn were called as witnesses, wit-nesses, to testify in the hearing, and were questioned by their counsel, R. Earl Dillman. Olin Wellborn, II, and Frank Hubbard, Hub-bard, attorneys from Los Angeles, An-geles, questioned other witnesses witness-es for the defendants and made I arguments setting forth the claims of the defendants. ' The land owners in the Roosevelt Roose-velt Unit area are confident that the setting aside of the unit agreement will result ih accelerated accel-erated and extensive development develop-ment of this area for oil and gas production. |