Brown v. Mayfield

92 So. 2d 762
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 5, 1957
Docket8638
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 92 So. 2d 762 (Brown v. Mayfield) 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
Brown v. Mayfield, 92 So. 2d 762 (La. Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

92 So.2d 762 (1957)

James Herman BROWN et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
J. Earl MAYFIELD, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 8638.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

February 5, 1957.

*763 Meadors, Shaw & Meadors, Homer, for appellant.

Blanchard, Goldstein, Walker & O'Quin, Shreveport, for appellees.

GLADNEY, Judge.

This is a petitory action by plaintiffs to be decreed the owners of ¼th of the mineral rights hereinafter described and which were acquired by their predecessor in title, A. L. Brown, on March 21, 1934, from the present defendant, J. Earl Mayfield. The principal issue relates to a plea of prescription by defendant based on LSA-C.C. art. 789, for non-use of ten years of the servitude so transferred. On June 1, 1949, defendant brought a jactitory action against plaintiffs and secured a default judgment therein on September 9, 1949. This action was then initiated by plaintiffs to gain recognition of their interest in the minerals, and to have *764 annulled the judgment rendered in the previous suit between the parties. The trial court sustained an exception of no cause or right of action filed in this cause, which ruling on appeal to this court was reversed. See: 45 So.2d 912. Upon the remand and following a trial on the merits, the plea of prescription was denied and judgment rendered recognizing plaintiffs to be the owners of ¼ of the minerals on the following described lands, situated in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana:

"South Half of Southeast Quarter of Southeast Quarter (S ½ of SE ¼ of SE ¼) and two (2) acres on East end of South Half of Southwest Quarter of Southeast Quarter (S ½ of SW ¼ of SE ¼), Section Twenty-Seven (27); and Northeast Quarter of Northeast Quarter (NE ¼ of NE ¼) and Southeast Quarter of Northeast Quarter (SE ¼ of NE ¼) less four (4) acres in Southwest Corner of the North Half of Southeast Quarter of Northeast Quarter (N ½ of SE ¼ of NE ¼), Section Thirty-Four (34), and two (2) acres in Northeast Corner of the Northwest Quarter of Northeast Quarter (NE ¼ of NE ¼) and North Half of Northeast Quarter of Southeast Quarter (N ½ of NE ¼ of SE ¼), Section Thirty-Four (34), Township Twenty-Three (23) North, Range Eight (8) West."

The decree of the trial court also annulled and set aside the default judgment. From the judgment so rendered, defendant has appealed.

The question raised as to the validity of the judgment of September 9, 1949, no longer presents a substantial issue. The opinion of this court reported in 45 So.2d 912 effectively ruled on this point, and counsel for the defendant concede as much. Without further discussion, therefore, we hold that portion of the judgment appealed from was correctly determined by the trial court.

The main and only other substantial issue pertains to the extinguishment vel non in whole or in part of the servitude transferred March 21, 1937. The material facts are contained in a stipulation between counsel.

There has been no drilling or production on any of the lands herein involved. On February 6, 1942 the Department of Conservation issued Order No. 35, providing regulations for production from and spacing of wells drilled in the Pettit lime formation of the Haynesville field, which order affected the entire SE ¼ of Section 23, Township 23 North, Range 8 West, but none of the other land involved in this suit. This order described the E ½ and the W ½ of said quarter section as separate eighty-acre drilling units upon which only one well might be drilled for production from the Pettit formation. The order did not impose pooling and integration of the separately owned tracts comprising the production units. The same end was accomplished by conventional agreements between the parties so affected. Thus, in November 1943, plaintiffs and other mineral owners executed a contract with the operators of the units to pool and unitize their mineral rights as embraced in the production units so created by the Department of Conservation. The defendant was not a signatory to the same contract signed by plaintiffs, but later, on March 25, 1944, the defendant executed a somewhat similar agreement. The difference in the confection of the two contracts will be hereinafter pointed out. A producing well was completed in 1943 on the E ½ of the SE ¼ and has continued to produce from the Pettit formation until the present time; and in 1944 a producing well from the Pettit formation was completed on the drilling unit comprising the W ½ of the SE ¼. It should be noted at this point that twenty acres of the mineral rights herein involved lie within the E ½ of the SE ¼ and two acres lie within the W ½ of the SE ¼. Thus, twenty-two acres of the mineral rights in dispute are within the production units created by Conservation *765 Order No. 35 and the remainder of the land herein involved, constituting ninety-eight acres, is outside of the units.

Plaintiffs and defendant received royalties from the production of the wells on the units until the filing of the jactitory action between the parties. Payment of royalties to plaintiffs and defendant was computed with reference to their ownership of ¼ and ¾ths of the mineral rights, respectively, in the twenty-two acres situated within the two drilling units.

The legal issue so raised is brought into focus by the plea of prescription of ten years non-user filed on behalf of defendant, in which plea it is pointed out that the mineral rights in question here were transferred by the defendant March 21, 1934, and there has been no drilling in search of minerals on any portion of the land so transferred. Therefore, it is contended there has been no suspension, extension or interruption of prescription for any cause whatsoever. Plaintiffs argue that LSA-C.C. art. 656 declares the rights of servitude considered in themselves are not susceptible of division, either real or imaginary, and that by reason of Conservation Order No. 35 and the integration contracts executed by plaintiffs and defendant, there has been an interruption of the prescription.

In the recent case of P. F. Childs v. Washington, 1956, 229 La. 869, 87 So.2d 111, the Supreme Court held that a mineral servitude was kept alive and extended by production as to portions of a tract of land affected by the servitude which, by orders of the Commissioner of Conservation had been included within previously established drilling units, but as to the remainder of the tract, not included within such units, the servitude was extinguished because of nonuse during a period of ten years. Pointing out that there were numerous expressions found in our jurisprudence maintaining the indivisibility of a servitude and to that effect citing Hunter Co. v. Shell Oil Co., 211 La. 893, 31 So.2d 10; LeBlanc v. Danciger Oil & Refining Co., 218 La. 463, 49 So.2d 855; Sanders v. Flowers, 218 La. 472, 49 So.2d 858; Sample v. Whitaker, 172 La. 722, 135 So. 38; Clark v. Tensas Delta Land Co., 172 La. 913, 136 So. 1; Patton v. Frost Lumber Industries, 176 La. 916, 147 So. 33; Childs v. Porter-Wadley Lumber Co., 190 La. 308, 182 So. 516, the decision noted that under LSA-C.C. art. 657 and its holdings in Ohio Oil Co. v. Ferguson, 213 La. 183, 34 So.2d 746, Byrd v. Forgotson, 213 La. 276, 34 So.2d 777, and Elson v. Mathewes, 1953, 224 La. 417, 69 So.2d 734, 735, the advantages resulting from a servitude are susceptible of division. Chief Justice Fournet, as the organ of the court, then went on to say the land owner and mineral owner can by agreement extend the servitude as to a portion of the acreage without interrupting prescription as to the servitude on the remainder of the tract.

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Bluebook (online)
92 So. 2d 762, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-mayfield-lactapp-1957.