State of Oklahoma v. State of Texas. United States, Intervener

Background

The United States asked for four specific parcels on the north side of the Red River’s medial line to be released from an existing receivership. The order lists each tract by lot, section, township, range, allotment number, year (1910), and the named allottees: Day Tah-Too-Ah-Ni-Pah (Comanche), Ray Do-Yah (Kiowa), Maggie Turtle Mountain Reid (Kiowa), and Robert To-Quothy (Comanche). The release, if allowed, also includes the part of the Red River bed lying in front of each tract and north of the river’s medial line. A receiver currently holds possession of these lands.

Reasoning

The Court ordered release of each tract only upon two clear conditions. First, the receiver must receive satisfactory agreements, approved by the Secretary of the Interior, that establish side lines running from the surveyed upland on the north bank to the river’s medial line and that define boundaries with adjoining tracts. Second, the receiver must be paid any sum then owing for oil wells drilled or completed on the tract within those side lines under the receiver’s supervision. That payment must cover all expenditures and advancements by the receiver, including materials, labor, and receivership expenses.

Real world impact

If both conditions are met for a tract, the receiver will surrender possession and the tract and its riverbed portion will be released from receivership. The named allottees or their successors stand to have possession restored, but release will not occur unless the boundary agreements are approved and oil-well related debts to the receiver are fully paid. The order is limited to the specifically described tracts and does not authorize release in any other circumstances.