Central Pines Land Co. v. United States

61 Fed. Cl. 527, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 207, 2004 WL 1870065
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedAugust 12, 2004
DocketNo. 98-314L
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 61 Fed. Cl. 527 (Central Pines Land Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Central Pines Land Co. v. United States, 61 Fed. Cl. 527, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 207, 2004 WL 1870065 (uscfc 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

YOCK, Senior Judge.

This two-count takings action is before the Court on two dispositive motions: (1) the Defendant’s Partial Motion to Dismiss or in the Alternative Motion for Summary Judgment of Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint, which relates to Count I; and (2) the Defendant’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, which relates to Count II. The Court has jurisdiction over the subject matter of this suit under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491 (2000).

The Plaintiffs’ First Amended and Restated Complaint seeks “just compensation” in accordance with the Fifth Amendment for the defendant’s alleged takings of oil, gas, and other mineral interests located below the surface of three contiguous parcels of land owned by the United States in Vernon Parish, Louisiana. Am. Compl. at ¶¶ 1-3. In Count I, the plaintiffs claim a permanent taking of their mineral interests below the surface of two of those parcels, which the parties have denoted as “Group A and B.” According to the plaintiffs, ‘“Group A’ and ‘Group B’ include lands now within the Kisatchie National Forest, a national forest managed by the Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture.” Id. at ¶11. In Count II, the plaintiffs claim a “temporary use” taking of their mineral interests in the third parcel of land, which the parties have denoted as “Group C.” According to the plaintiffs, “Group C includes land now within Fort Polk, a military facility of the United States Department of Army.” Id.

[529]*529For the reasons discussed below, the Court hereby grants the Defendant’s Partial Motion to Dismiss or in the Alternative Motion for Summary Judgment of Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint and dismisses the plaintiffs’ Group A and B claims asserted in Count I. With respect to Count II, however, the Court hereby denies the Defendant’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, which challenges the plaintiffs’ Group C claims on statute of limitations grounds.

Discussion

This case comes before the Court after a lengthy stay during which the plaintiffs litigated a quiet-title action against the United States in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in order to determine ownership of the Group A, B, and C mineral rights. See Central Pines Land Co. v. United States, No. 2:96-2000, slip op. (W.D.La.2000), aff'd, 274 F.3d 881 (5th Cir. 2001), and cert. denied, 537 U.S. 822, 123 S.Ct. 101, 154 L.Ed.2d 30 (2002). In the prior action, the parties sought a ruling on whether or not the plaintiffs’ mineral rights reverted to the United States pursuant to Louisiana’s prescription law, under which mineral servitudes expire and revert to the surface owner after ten years of non use. See id. at 12, 274 F.3d at 884. Granting summary judgment to the United States, the district court held that the plaintiffs’ Group A and B mineral rights had prescribed (or reverted) to the United States in 1974, slip op. at 34; the district court had previously granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs on the Group C mineral rights, holding that a change in Louisiana law made these rights imprescriptible. See id. at 3, n. 4.

Both parties appealed the adverse rulings, focusing on the piece of legislation that effectuated this change in Louisiana’s prescription law. This legislation, known as “Louisiana Act 315 of 1940,” renders “imprescriptible” any oil, gas, or other subsurface mineral rights or royalties in land owned by the United States. Central Pines, 274 F.3d at 885 (quoting 1940 La. Acts 315). The plaintiffs argued that Act 315 applied both prospectively to the Group C lands (acquired by the United States after 1940) and retroactively to the Group A and B lands (acquired by the United States before 1940). The United States, in contrast, argued that Act 315 should not apply at all, either retroactively or prospectively.

The Fifth Circuit concluded that the district court properly granted summary judgment on both counts and therefore affirmed the decision. See Central Pines, 274 F.3d 881. Rejecting the plaintiffs’ argument, the Fifth Circuit held that Act 315 cannot be applied retroactively to render imprescriptible the mineral servitudes underlying lands acquired by the United States before 1940. See id. at 889-90. Accordingly, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s finding that the mineral rights under Group A and B — acquired by the United States before 1940 — had prescribed to the United States on March 20, 1974, after the ten-year prescriptive period had passed. See id. at 895. The Fifth Circuit, however, rejected the position taken by the United States on the Group C mineral rights, holding that Act 315 applied prospectively to render imprescriptible the plaintiffs’ mineral interests in the Group C lands. See id. at 892. After the Supreme Court denied a writ of certiorari in late 2002, Central Pines, 537 U.S. 822, 123 S.Ct. 101, this Court lifted a stay of the present action, which had been in place pending the resolution of the district court case. Shortly after the stay was lifted, the defendant filed the two dispositive motions now before this Court.

While the prior action was factually complex, the district court’s findings have greatly narrowed the issues and set the stage for this Court to address the plaintiffs’ claims for the takings of their Group A, B, and C mineral rights. The background facts pertinent to the motions now before the Court are straightforward and can be easily summarized. In 1929, Gulf Lumber Company conveyed the mineral rights located under the Group A, B, and C lands — approximately 100,510.77 acres — to S.H. Fullerton. Next, in separate transactions that took place in 1933 and 1936, the United States acquired the surface rights to the Group A and B lands from Gulf, surface rights that were subject to Fullerton’s outstanding mineral interests. On April 26, 1937, Fullerton con[530]*530veyed the mineral rights under the Group A and B lands to Wm. T. Burton, the plaintiffs’ alleged predecessor-in-interest. On that same date, Burton also acquired the complete title to the Group C lands, obtaining the surface rights from Gulf and the mineral rights from Fullerton. The United States subsequently acquired the surface rights to the Group C lands from Burton through several separate transactions and expropriation proceedings that took place between 1942 and 1981; Burton, however, retained the mineral rights in the Group C lands. Burton’s rights were later transferred in 1988 to the individual plaintiffs in mesne conveyances that occurred as a result of a corporate reorganization.

With this background, the Court can now resolve the Defendant’s Partial Motion to Dismiss or in the Alternative Motion for Summary Judgment of Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint, which relates to Count I (Group A and B), and the Defendant’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, which relates to Count II (Group C).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
61 Fed. Cl. 527, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 207, 2004 WL 1870065, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/central-pines-land-co-v-united-states-uscfc-2004.