Consolidated Resources, Inc. v. Siess

607 So. 2d 1012, 1992 La. App. LEXIS 3418, 1992 WL 319631
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 4, 1992
DocketNo. 91-831
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 607 So. 2d 1012 (Consolidated Resources, Inc. v. Siess) 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
Consolidated Resources, Inc. v. Siess, 607 So. 2d 1012, 1992 La. App. LEXIS 3418, 1992 WL 319631 (La. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

LABORDE, Judge.

In this case, John and Alberta Seiss appeal a judgment awarding Consolidated Resources, Inc. a default judgment. We hold that an answer filed by a court appointed attorney can have no effect on a nonresident defendant over whom there was no personal jurisdiction and affirm the trial court.

FACTS

This case arose as a result of a prior proceeding entitled John D. Siess, et ux v. Vinton Oil and Gas Corporation, et al bearing docket number 86-1647. On May 15, 1981, John D. Siess and Alberta Pierce Siess (appellants in the present litigation) entered into an Assignment of Leases and Sale of Equipment. Through this assign[1013]*1013ment, appellants sold their interest in two oil, gas, and mineral leases to Vinton Oil & Gas Corporation. Appellants also sold some equipment found on the property affected by the leases through this document.

The assignment stated that a portion of the sales price was for credit, evidenced by a note, payment of which was to be made in the following manner:

Vendor (appellants) shall be entitled to receive 10% of the net proceeds, after taxes, from oil to be sold from the leases herein assigned. For the purpose of securing' this portion of the obligation, Vendee does hereby assign to Vendor, as a production payment, an undivided 10% of the production from the leases herein assigned and does hereby authorize the purchaser of all oil sold from the said leases to pay directly to the Vendor herein 10% of the proceeds of such sales, after deduction of all applicable taxes.

As further security for the debt, the assignment created what purports to be a lien on the movable items also being sold.

On April 4, 1986, appellants sued Vinton Oil and Gas and others by a pleading entitled “Petition for Money Judgment and Recognition of Mortgage.” Through this petition, appellants prayed for money judgment against Vinton Oil and Gas for the unpaid portion of the note. Appellants also prayed for recognition of their security interests in the items conveyed to Vinton Oil and Gas as set forth in the assignment.

The trial on this matter was held November 25, 1986, and a judgment was signed June 23, 1987. This judgment recognized appellants’ right to collect the sums owed “from the security devices more particularly set out in that certain Assignment of Leases and Sale of Equipment.” The judgment also attempted to describe those security devices, but did so erroneously. Rather than setting forth the security device to be “10% of the production from the leases herein assigned,” it stated appellants were entitled to satisfaction of their judgment from (10%) ten percent of the production of oil, gas and other minerals produced and saved from the affected property. A plain reading of this judgment, without reference to the assignment, indicates appellants had an interest in (10%) ten percent of the minerals.

Consolidated Resources, Inc., purchased the affected property in the Spring of 1988. On January 1, 1989, Consolidated Resources sold (10%) ten percent of the property to John F. Fowler and Mary Ann Fowler. Consolidated Resources and the Fowlers are the plaintiffs in the present action, are hereafter referred to as “appel-lees.”

Appellees investigated production under the leases prior to purchase and determined the leases had lapsed by their own terms. More specifically, the leases in question provided they would expire once there had been no production or other operations for a period of ninety days. After satisfying themselves that the leases had expired and after obtaining a release from the operator and working interest owners of the prior leases, appellees began their own operations in March of 1988 after purchasing the property.

Production began again as a result of appellees’ operations, and this production was sold to Permian Oil. Permian requested a title opinion, which noted a cloud on the titled created by the June 30, 1987 judgment. As a result of the cloud on the title created by this judgment, Permian determined it must withhold a portion of the purchase price pending resolution of the cloud. In an attempt to rectify the cloud on the title to this property, appellees filed a Motion to Amend Judgment. In this motion, appellees claimed to be aggrieved by the June 30, 1987 judgment insofar as that judgment purported to recognize a real right in the minerals to the property owned by appellees. Appellees suggested in the motion that the wording of the judgment was clearly erroneous and was an error in phraseology rather than substance therefore subject to amendment pursuant to article 1919 of the La.Code of Civil Procedure.

The disposition of this motion is unclear from the record, however, on July 25, 1989, appellees filed a Petition for Intervention, Declaratory Judgment and Damages. Ap-[1014]*1014pellees attempted to accomplish the same purpose as with the Motion to Amend Judgment with this petition but requested damages for wrongful seizure, malicious harassment, and refusal to rectify the cloud on the title to the property. Appellants filed an Exception of No Cause of Action to the petition. The trial court signed a judgment on December 22, 1989, denying appellants’ exception, allowing appellants fifteen days to apply for a supervisory writ to this Court and further ordered and declared that (1) if the supervisory writ be denied, the production payment recognized in the June 80, 1987 judgment had expired by its own terms and (2) allowing appellants forty-five days to identify and remove any items from the property on which they claimed to have a mortgage. With respect to the second finding, the trial court also allowed appellees five days after removal of the property to object to the court to the validity of appellants’ claim of a mortgage. This Court granted the writ and made it peremptory, noting that an intervention can be filed only in a pending action, and this Court further found the intervention to be untimely and ordered the intervention to be dismissed, reserving to appellants the right to file a separate action.

On February 21, 1990, appellees filed a Petition for Declaratory Judgment, Cancellation of Judgment and Damages. This petition included a recitation of events leading up to its filing and asked for the following:

(1) Judgment declaring the exact and precise rights of each party to the litigation;
(2) Judgment declaring that John D. Siess and Alberta Pearce Siess own no right in and to the minerals lying on or beneath the affected property; and
(3) Judgment declaring that the chattel mortgage purportedly created by the assignment is of no effect or alternatively, a judgment setting forth specifically those items on which appel-lees have a valid mortgage.

Appellees also asked for damages caused by appellants’ refusal to clear title.

The petition alleged appellants were residents of either the State of Florida or the State of Louisiana and were amenable to suit in Louisiana with jurisdiction to be affected by personal service in the State of Louisiana or through the Louisiana Long Arm Statute. Initially, appellants’ counsel agreed that formal service would be unnecessary and that he would merely answer on appellants’ behalf. When this agreement was not honored, appellees attempted to serve appellants in Lake Charles, but the citations issued were returned marked “Unknown.” Appellees then attempted to serve appellants through the Louisiana Long Arm Statute.

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Related

Consolidated Resources, Inc. v. Siess
613 So. 2d 163 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
607 So. 2d 1012, 1992 La. App. LEXIS 3418, 1992 WL 319631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/consolidated-resources-inc-v-siess-lactapp-1992.