Cox v. Sanders

409 So. 2d 1257, 74 Oil & Gas Rep. 42, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 6714
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 25, 1982
DocketNo. 14743
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 409 So. 2d 1257 (Cox v. Sanders) 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
Cox v. Sanders, 409 So. 2d 1257, 74 Oil & Gas Rep. 42, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 6714 (La. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinions

PRICE, Judge.

Plaintiff, Mrs. George M. Cox, instituted this suit against defendants, Mrs. Medorah Head Sanders, Jerry Head Sanders, and Thomas A. Sanders, Jr., seeking cancellation of all servitudes affecting her property due to accrual of liberative prescription of 10 years nonuse. She further seeks damages and attorney fees because of defendant’s failure to furnish her a recordable act evidencing the extinction of these servi-tudes within 30 days after her written demand as required by La.R.S. 31:206-207. The trial court ordered cancellation of all existing servitudes affecting plaintiff’s property but rejected her claim for attorney fees. Defendants have limited their appeal to the trial court’s decision as it affects one contiguous 400 acre tract which is designated in the trial record as Servitude No. 4. In answer to this appeal, plaintiff contends the trial court erred in denying her claims for attorney fees.

The following facts giving rise to this litigation are not in controversy. In 1961 plaintiff’s husband, George M. Cox, and Mrs. Sanders’ husband, Thomas A. Sanders, Sr., as co-owners in indivisión, conveyed certain lands in two separate deeds to D’Ar-bonne Development Corporation. In 1965, Cox and the present defendants, who succeeded to Thomas A. Sanders, Sr.’s interest in the property, executed two conveyances of certain other tracts owned by them in indivisión to the same corporation. In each of the four conveyances a servitude reserving to the grantors ownership in indivisión of all the minerals was effected. In 1968, D’Arbonne reconveyed to the Coxes and defendants part of the property involved in the four earlier transactions.

[1259]*1259In 1968, the Coxes and defendants voluntarily partitioned the lands reacquired from D’Arbonne, in addition to other lands owned in indivisión by them. The partition agreement provided that all minerals would continue to be held in indivisión by the parties.

In 1972 defendants granted a lease to GMB Gas Corporation covering their interest in the servitude under consideration on this appeal. Two wells, Cox and Sanders Wells No. 1 and No. 10, were drilled on the tract of land acquired by defendants from the partition 1 and gas production occurred from 1972 through 1977. The Coxes did not consent to this drilling and were not parties to the lease. All payments tendered to the Coxes by GMB were refused.

After Cox refused to allow GMB the right to conduct drilling operations on his land, GMB filed suit for an injunction against Cox’s interference. Cox reconvened for judgment declaring the lease invalid and for an injunction against any further drilling on any part of the tract in which he was the co-owner of the mineral servitude. This court granted Cox an injunction and declared the lease invalid in GMB Gas Corp. v. Cox, 340 So.2d 638 (La. App. 2d Cir. 1976). In 1977 defendant can-celled the lease.

Plaintiff is now the owner of all the property formerly owned by her and her late husband. After defendants refused her written demands for the cancellation of all the servitudes affecting her property, she filed this suit.

It is stipulated by both parties that no production sufficient to interrupt the running of prescription has occurred on the tracts of land burdened by servitudes which were designated at trial as Servitudes Nos. 1, 2, 3A, and 3B.

Defendants contend that a new servitude, referred to in the record as servitude No. 4, was created by the act of partition and that the production of gas from Cox and Sanders Wells No. 1 and No. 10 from 1972-1976 interrupted the running of liberative prescription.

The precise issue before us, therefore, is whether the good faith drilling of the Cox and Sanders Wells No. 1 and No. 10 under a lease granted by only one of the co-owners (Sanders) without the consent of the other co-owner (Cox) constitutes a “use” of the servitude that interrupted the running of liberative prescription.

We find the trial judge correctly analyzed and resolved this issue in well-written reasons for judgment and we quote from his opinion in part as follows:

Defendants strongly rely upon the decision in Taylor v. Dunn, 233 La. 617, 97 So.2d 415 (La.1957), holding that drilling by the lessee on a one-half mineral interest constituted sufficient use of the servitude to interrupt prescription. There the prevailing plaintiff-lessor owned in its entirety a separate fractional mineral interest, and the Court cited Huckabay v. Texas Company, 227 La. 191, 78 So.2d 829 (La.1955). In the latter case it was recognized that the lessee or owner of fractional mineral rights has an absolute right to develop the property; however, a distinction was there drawn between joint ownership of a single right as compared to two or more fractional rights which are independent of each other. See Starr Davis Oil Co. v. Webber, 218 La. 231, 48 So.2d 906 (La.1950), setting forth the same concept.
In GMB Gas Corp. v. Cox, 340 So.2d 638 (La.App. 2d Cir. 1976), this distinction was again recognized and relied upon after concluding that the partition agreement involved, which is now once more under consideration, created co-ownership of a single mineral servitude. It was determined that the lessee of such a co-owner could not conduct operations on any of the lands subject to the servitude without consent of the other co-owner.
[1260]*1260Thus Taylor, concerning owners of separate mineral rights not co-owners of a single mineral servitude, is inapposite to the instant case. Cf. La.R.S. 31:169. . . .
Under Articles 42 and 175 of the Code, except in limited circumstances, a mineral servitude may be used only by its owner, or one acting on his behalf, and a eo-owner may not conduct operations without the consent of the other co-owner.
Except as provided in Articles 44 through 52, use of a mineral servitude must be by the owner of the servitude, his representative or employee, or some other person acting on his behalf. R.S. 31:42.
A co-owner of a mineral servitude may not conduct operations on the property subject to the servitude without the consent of the other co-owner. R.S. 31:175.
We thus conclude that drilling and production by defendants’ lessee, without the consent of plaintiff, was neither such “use” of the servitude nor good faith “operation” as would interrupt running of the prescription of nonuse, as provided by Articles 29, 36, and 41.
Defendants also contend that under Article 174 of the Code, if one co-owner acts without consent of the other, the use inures to the benefit of all co-owners. But that argument is wide of the mark. Plaintiff seeks nor claims no such benefit.
Similarly, defendant’s reliance upon Article 176 of the Code, which states:
A co-owner of a mineral servitude may act to prevent waste or the destruction or extinction of the servitude, but he cannot impose upon his co-owner liability for any costs of development or operation or other costs except out of production. He may lease or otherwise contract regarding the full ownership of the servitude but must act at all times in good faith and as a reasonably prudent mineral servitude owner whose interest is not subject to co-ownership.

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

Related

State of Louisiana Versus Jared Diaz
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2021
Cox v. Sanders
412 So. 2d 1110 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1982)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
409 So. 2d 1257, 74 Oil & Gas Rep. 42, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 6714, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cox-v-sanders-lactapp-1982.