Amerada Hess Corp. v. Morgan

426 So. 2d 1122
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedFebruary 3, 1983
DocketAK-112, AK-238
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 426 So. 2d 1122 (Amerada Hess Corp. v. Morgan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Amerada Hess Corp. v. Morgan, 426 So. 2d 1122 (Fla. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

426 So.2d 1122 (1983)

AMERADA HESS CORPORATION, et al., Appellants,
v.
Catherine Norred MORGAN, et al., Appellees.
CHEVRON U.S.A., INC., a California Company, Appellant,
v.
Catherine Norred MORGAN, et al., Appellees.

Nos. AK-112, AK-238.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

February 3, 1983.
Rehearing Denied February 11, 1983.

*1123 Peter J. Winders and Eurich Z. Griffin of Carlton, Fields, Ward, Emmanuel, Smith & Cutler, Tampa, for appellants in No. AK-112.

William D. Ryals of William D. Ryals, P.A., Gainesville, for appellant in No. AK-238.

Thomas A. Roberts and Joanne L. Bober of Moore & Peterson, Dallas, Tex., and Alan B. Bookman of Emmanuel, Sheppard & Condon, Pensacola, for appellees.

LARRY G. SMITH, Judge.

This appeal is from a final judgment entered in the trial court after remand pursuant to this court's decision in Morgan v. Amerada Hess Corporation, 357 So.2d 1040 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978).[1] The final judgment appealed quieted title in appellees with respect to an undivided one/eleventh interest in certain land in Santa Rosa County, and awarded monetary relief to appellees by way of payments for oil, gas, and other minerals extracted from the land by the several defendants. We affirm.

*1124 We first consider the contention that the trial court erred in ruling that it had no jurisdiction to confirm the conveyance made by the guardian of appellees' father's estate some twelve years before the instant litigation was commenced.[2] It is undisputed that although a petition for court confirmation of the guardian's conveyance was prepared, it was never filed with the court, and no court order (which was required to give validity to the sale, under Section 745.05, Florida Statutes (1963))[3] was ever obtained. The trial court applied the rule that the jurisdiction of the court to belatedly confirm the sale and conveyance by the guardian terminated upon the death of the ward (appellees' father) in 1973, two years before the filing of this suit. The court ruled correctly.

The Second District, in In Re Estate of Pearson, 192 So.2d 89 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1966), applied the same rule (that death of the ward terminates the guardianship) in a case involving the assignment of dower, holding that the power of the court to set aside dower terminated on the death of an incompetent widow, even though her guardians' election to take dower had been filed in her behalf prior to her death. See, also, 39 Corpus Juris Secundum, Guardian and Ward, § 41. Appellants cite Northeast Bank of Clearwater v. Bentley, 413 So.2d 480 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1982), as authority for the proposition that the court does have the power to confirm a sale "after-the-fact." In Northeast Bank, a ward, Mrs. Bentley, after regaining competency, challenged the validity of an agreement made during her incompetency by her guardian for division of corporate stock jointly owned by the ward and her husband. The trial court ruled that since no court order had been obtained approving the division of the stock under statutes then in effect, Mrs. Bentley was entitled to recover in her action for conversion against the bank which had cashed a check for sale of half the stock. In so ruling, the trial court prohibited the bank from asserting in defense that although Mrs. Bentley's name and that of her husband appeared as payees on the check, only her husband was the intended payee, since the agreement called for Mrs. Bentley to receive a certificate in her name alone for the other one-half of the stock. In reversing, the Second District pointed out that the guardianship proceeding had not been terminated, nor had Mrs. Bentley's guardian been discharged. Therefore, the court reasoned, it was not too late for the guardian to seek a confirmation of the stock division agreement. We agree, as argued by appellees, that Northeast Bank does not alter the rule applied by the trial court in this case, in that the guardianship was terminated by court order dated August 2, 1973, prior to the commencement of this suit.[4]

We next consider the contention that appellees were not entitled to the relief awarded because of failure to join indispensable parties. Appellants refer to Thomas E. McMillan and Elvira Cochran McMillan, who were joined as parties defendant in this case but as to whom, as pointed out in our prior decision, Morgan v. Amerada Hess Corporation, supra, on petition for rehearing, 357 So.2d at 1045, appellees' action was barred by the statute of limitations because they were not joined as defendants in this case until June 1, 1976, a date subsequent to the expiration of the saving clause provided in Section 95.022, Florida Statutes (1975). The McMillans' interest arose as follows: Title to a portion of the property (tracts 2 and 3), including the disputed one/eleventh interest, became vested in Robert W. Blackman and his wife, *1125 Lola B. Blackman. The Blackmans conveyed a mineral lease to Thomas McMillan, granting the exclusive right, at the lessee's expense, to produce oil, gas and other minerals on the property, subject to the obligation to pay the Blackmans one/eighth of the oil and gas produced, free of production costs. The McMillans, in turn, assigned their production rights and duties (referred to as a "working interest") to Amerada Hess Corporation, in return for which the corporation agreed to pay the McMillans 27.5 percent of the oil and gas produced (in addition to the one/eighth royalty to the Blackmans). An unrecorded letter agreement between the McMillans and Amerada Hess, referred to in the recorded assignment of the McMillans' working interest, provided that the 27.5 percent overriding royalty payable to McMillans would be reduced to the extent that the assigned lease interest covered less than the entire mineral estate in tracts 2 and 3. Appellants urge that the McMillans were indispensable parties in that any ruling which affected the Blackmans' interest would, of necessity, affect McMillans' interest under their assignment to Amerada Hess, and that the final judgment entered by the trial court, invalidating the "working interest" transferred by the McMillans to Amerada Hess to the extent of the one/eleventh interest awarded to appellees, necessarily brings into operation the "proportionate reduction" letter agreement, under which Amerada Hess will be entitled to reduce the McMillans' "overriding royalty" to the extent of one/eleventh.

An indispensable party is one whose interest will be substantially and directly affected by the outcome of the case. W.F.S. Co. v. Anniston National Bank of Anniston, 140 Fla. 213, 191 So. 300 (Fla. 1939). We conclude, however, that appellants have not shown that the McMillans are indispensable parties under the foregoing test. First, as pointed out by appellees, after the McMillans' assignment to Amerada Hess, the McMillans no longer had an obligation to any party with respect to tracts 2 and 3, and were the owners and holders of an overriding royalty interest, which is a nonpossessory right to receive money.[5] They retained no right to enter upon the land to develop or produce minerals, and Amerada Hess, as the owner of McMillans' "working interest," assumed only the obligation to pay McMillans" overriding royalty of 27.5 percent, and to pay the obligation to the Blackmans of one/eighth of the oil and gas produced, free of production costs. Secondly, it is clear that under the judgment fashioned by the trial court, the rights and interests of the McMillans have not been and will not be affected.

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Bluebook (online)
426 So. 2d 1122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/amerada-hess-corp-v-morgan-fladistctapp-1983.