ARKANSAS FUEL OIL CORPORATION v. Weber

149 So. 2d 101
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 11, 1963
Docket9842
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 149 So. 2d 101 (ARKANSAS FUEL OIL CORPORATION v. Weber) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
ARKANSAS FUEL OIL CORPORATION v. Weber, 149 So. 2d 101 (La. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

149 So.2d 101 (1963)

ARKANSAS FUEL OIL CORPORATION Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Emile M. WEBER et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 9842.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

January 2, 1963.
Rehearing Denied February 7, 1963.
Certiorari Refused April 11, 1963.

*102 A. Leon Hebert, Emile M. Weber, Baton Rouge, Cook, Clark, Egan, Yancey & King, Wilkinson, Lewis, Madison & Woods, Shreveport, for appellants.

John W. Haygood, Shreveport, for appellee.

Before HARDY, GLADNEY and AYRES, JJ.

HARDY, Judge.

This action was instituted by plaintiff as the holder of funds representing the purchase of crude oil produced from a well located on an 80 acre unit comprising the North Half of the Northwest Quarter of Section 33, Township 18 North, Range 13 West, Bossier Parish, Louisiana. Plaintiff deposited the amount held in the custody of the Clerk of Court and prayed for citation of the numerous defendants representing adverse claimants to the fund and judgment relieving it from liability with respect to all amounts deposited.

Named as defendants were the Town of Bossier City, the Police Jury of Bossier Parish, the Hunter Company, Inc., and its predecessor, Hunter Land & Investment Company, Inc., Emile M. Weber, lessee of the Town of Bossier City, Joe M. Burnham, lessee of the Hunter Company, the widow and heirs of F. M. Browning, who was Burnham's co-lessee, the Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Company and numerous other parties who were assignees of interests from Burnham and Browning.

The property involved, with respect to the asserted adverse interests of the defendants, *103 was described as comprising four separate tracts of land. For reasons which we deem it unnecessary to set forth, since the effect is conceded by all parties to this appeal, one of the tracts of land has been eliminated from consideration, and the defendants, Town of Bossier City, Police Jury of Bossier Parish and Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Company have abandoned all claims to any rights involved in this suit, and, therefore, are not parties to this appeal.

The mineral interests involved underlie three separate tracts of land located in the 80 acre unitized tract in Section 33 as above set forth, which tracts may be briefly described as follows:

Tract 3, comprising all streets and alleys in the Northwest Quarter of Northwest Quarter, as shown by plat of Central Plaza Subdivision, recorded in Book 60, page 357 of the records of Bossier Parish, containing 10.423 acres.
Tract 5, comprising certain streets and portions of streets in the Northeast Quarter of Northwest Quarter situated in Central Plaza Subdivision, as per plat described supra, containing 3.734 acres.
Tract 6, embracing that portion of the Coushatta paved highway in the Northeast Quarter of Northwest Quarter, as shown on plat of Central Plaza Subdivision, containing 1.228 acres.

After trial, which consisted almost exclusively of the introduction of documentary evidence, there was judgment as to Tracts 3 and 5 recognizing the defendant, Emile Weber, as the owner of a valid oil, gas and mineral lease thereto; as to Tract 6, there was judgment recognizing the defendants Burnham, et als., as the owners of a valid oil, gas and mineral lease thereto. In addition to the adverse claims as to the ownership of the mineral interests in the properties involved, there was also presented the issue as to the apportionment of costs of drilling, completing and operating the producing oil and gas well known as Hunter No. 1, located on the 80 acre unit. In this connection the judgment specifically set forth an apportionment of the cost and charged the defendant, Weber, with his proportionate share thereof.

From this judgment all parties defendant have appealed from the portions thereof which adversely affect their claims.

Chronologically, the material facts may be outlined as follows:

(1). The Hunter interests became the owners of the subject property in 1907.
(2). By instrument of date May 17, 1926, duly filed and recorded June 19, 1926, in Conveyance Volume 80, page 386 of the Records of Bossier Parish, the Estate of S. S. Hunter, Inc., represented by S. D. Hunter, President, conveyed to the Parish of Bossier a strip of land 1,250 feet in length by 70 feet in width for use in the construction and maintenance of a public road. This is the property described as a portion of the Coushatta paved highway under Tract 6, supra.
(3). On May 30, 1931, the Hunter Land & Investment Company, record owners of the property, caused to be filed and recorded in the records of Bossier Parish a plat of Central Plaza, being a subdivision lying partially within and partially without the limits of the Town of Bossier City. This plat set forth in detail the block and lot descriptions of the subdivision, together with the names and locations of numerous streets and the locations of alleys, all as shown to be embraced within the subdivision. The plat contained the specific declaration:
"We hereby dedicate to public use the streets and alleys as shown above.
Hunter Land & Investment Co. By S. D. Hunter, Pres. Owners"

*104 (4). On June 8, 1936, the Police Jury of Bossier Parish adopted Ordinance No. 45 revoking the dedication of certain streets and portions of streets as described in the Ordinance, lying within that part of Central Plaza Subdivision outside of the limits of the Town of Bossier City, which ordinance was recorded under date of April 23, 1937, in Volume 132, page 9 of the Conveyance Records of Bossier Parish.

(5). By Ordinance 236 of 1936 the Town of Bossier City revoked the dedication of all streets and alleys in Central Plaza Subdivision, which ordinance, however, was never recorded.
(6). By Ordinance 308 of 1944 the Town of Bossier City extended and enlarged its corporate limits to include that portion of Section 33 embracing the part of Central Plaza Subdivision which had previously been without the boundaries of the municipality.
(7). By Ordinance 201 of 1950 adopted on March 14th, the Bossier Parish Police Jury, upon the request of the Hunter Company, Inc., revoked, with some slight exceptions, the dedication of all the streets and alleys not previously included in its Ordinance No. 45 adopted in 1936.
(8). By instrument dated February 12, 1951, the Hunter Company, Inc., executed an oil, gas and mineral lease in favor of Joe M. Burnham and F. M. Browning, as lessees, covering:

"All that portion of the North Half of the Northwest Quarter (N½ of NW¼) of Section 33, Township 18 North, Range 13 West, owned by lessor."

(9). After compliance with statutory requirements and provisions, the State Mineral Board, for and on behalf of the Town of Bossier City, under date of May 11, 1951, executed an oil, gas and mineral lease in favor of Emile M. Weber, the successful bidder, covering all of the streets and alleys of the Town of Bossier City located in the North Half of the Northwest Quarter of Section 33, Township 18 North, Range 13 West, Bossier Parish, Louisiana. (A cash consideration of $2,000.00 was paid to the lessor, and, so far as the record discloses, this amount was received and has been retained by Bossier City).
(10).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

White v. Phillips Petroleum Company
232 So. 2d 83 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1970)
Arkansas Fuel Oil Corp. v. Weber
151 So. 2d 493 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1963)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
149 So. 2d 101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arkansas-fuel-oil-corporation-v-weber-lactapp-1963.