Fontenot v. Humble Oil & Refining Co.

210 So. 2d 340, 30 Oil & Gas Rep. 551, 1968 La. App. LEXIS 5118
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 3, 1968
DocketNo. 2328
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 210 So. 2d 340 (Fontenot v. Humble Oil & Refining Co.) 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
Fontenot v. Humble Oil & Refining Co., 210 So. 2d 340, 30 Oil & Gas Rep. 551, 1968 La. App. LEXIS 5118 (La. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinions

SAVOY, Judge.

The instant case was consolidated for purposes of trial with that of Landreneau et al. v. Humble Oil & Refining Co. et al., bearing docket number 2329 on the docket of this Court, 210 So.2d 345, and a separate decree is being handed down this date.

This is a suit for cancellation of an oil, gas and mineral lease instituted by lessor against lessee. After a trial on the merits, the district court rendered judgment in favor of defendants and against plaintiff, rejecting her demand and dismissing her suit. Plaintiff has appealed.

[342]*342The oil, gas and mineral lease sought to be cancelled was executed on January 3, 1962, by Agnes Landreneau Fontenot, Se-manthe Vidrine Landreneau, Calvin Lan-dreneau, Gibbons Landreneau, Annabelle Landreneau and Charles Landreneau, as lessor, in favor of Warren L. Brown, as lessee, and subsequently assigned to defendants herein. This lease covers three separate non-contiguous tracts of land. Mrs. Fontenot, the appellant herein, owned no interest in the tract listed as No. 1 in the lease description, but owned a one-half interest in the tracts designated Nos. 2 and 3. Mrs. Fontenot prayed for cancellation of the lease as to all three tracts, and alternatively, for cancellation as to her interest in tracts 2 and 3 only. Appellants, under docket number 2329 being referred to as the heirs of Adraste Landreneau, are the owners of all of tract 1 and a one-half interest in tracts 2 and 3, and they prayed for cancellation of the lease as to all tracts. The basic facts have been agreed upon by stipulation. Thus, with minor exceptions, the questions before the Court are of law rather than fact.

On December 9, 1962, lessees commenced drilling a well which was completed as a shut-in gas well on February 9, 1963. In accordance with the terms of the lease, within ninety days from the date on which the well was shut in, lessees deposited the correct amount of shut-in royalty payment, to the credit of all lessors, in the bank designated by the lease, sufficient to maintain the lease until its next anniversary date. Two well tests were made. One in February and the other in May of 1963. Since the lease did not indicate the interest owned by lessors in the several tracts, a letter was obtained by lessees from Mrs. Fontenot and her husband stating that they owned no interest in tract 1 on which the well is situated, and did not intend, by joining in the execution of the lease, as lessor, to communitize or pool their share of the royalties payable with the other parties executing said lease as lessor. Based on this letter, lessees paid the production royalties from the two tests to the owners of tract 1 individually. A conservation unit was created effective August 1, 1963, and production began on September 4, 1963, and has continued since without interruption.

Mrs. Fontenot’s primary contention is that the lease is not a joint or community lease, and production from tract 1 in which she owned no interest, did not maintain the lease as to her interest in tracts 2 and 3, therefore, the lease terminated by the failure to pay the annual rental due on January 3, 1963, and in support of this position, plaintiff cites several inapposite cases as authority for her position.

Defendants argue that although the letter from plaintiff and her husband may show that a joint community lease was not contemplated as between lessors, the lease was a joint or community lease as between lessor and lessee, under the terms of the lease and the law of this State.

The primary issue is whether the lease is a joint or community lease as between the lessee and lessor.

The lease is on a standard lease form commonly used in Southwest Louisiana. It. declares that the lessors are to be “herein called lessor- (whether one or more)”. It states that “lessor” for a stated consideration leases to lessee the land described as follows, to-wit: “132.8 acres in three tracts”, after which the three tracts are described in detail. It further provides that on or before one year from date, the lease shall terminate unless lessee “commences operations for the drilling of a well on the land”, or pay rental “for all” or part “of the land” which lessee elects to continue to hold. The lease does not specify the interest owned by the various parties.

The law is well settled that where several lessors, owning different interests in separate tracts, join in a single lease which describes all of their property and gives a total acreage figure for all of the different tracts, the lease is considered a joint lease as between lessee and lessor [343]*343Nabors v. Producers’ Oil Co., 140 La. 985, 74 So. 527, L.R.A.1917D, 1115 (1917); Ardis v. Texas Co., 155 La. 790, 99 So. 600 (1924); United Gas Public Service Co. v. Eaton (La.App., 2 Cir., 1934), 153 So. 702; A. Veeder Co. v. Pan American Production Co., 205 La. 599, 17 So.2d 891 (1944); and Farrell v. Simms, 209 La. 1072, 26 So.2d 143 (1946).

Plaintiff has apparently confused the joint lease as between lessors, and the joint lease as between lessor and lessee.

The above cited cases make it clear that regardless of the severabilities of the lease as between the lessors, it is joint “quoad the lessee” and those holding under him.

The letter signed by Mrs. Fontenot, referred to above, related only to the severa-bility of the lease as between lessors. It did not concern or affect the joint or community status of the lease as between lessor and lessee. See United Gas Public Service Co. v. Eaton, supra, 153 So. at page 707, wherein the court said:

“ * * * and regardless of its ownership being severable as between the lessors, it is joint quoad the lessee and those holding under him. * * *.”

We find the case before this Court to be very similar to the case of A. Veeder Co. v. Pan American Production Co., supra. There, several lessors with separate ownerships in a number of tracts joined in one lease which described all of the tracts, without specifying the interest owned by the various parties. However, the lease description was later amended, and the separate ownership in the various tracts was set out. At the time the amendment was made, specific provisions were included for payment of royalties to the respective owners of the land from which the royalties might be produced. A well was drilled and completed on one of the separately owned tracts within the primary term of the lease, and suit was brought by one of the lessors having no interest in that tract seeking the cancellation of the lease as to the tracts owned by him. Beginning on page 894 of 17 So.2d, the court said:

“A reading of the original lease shows beyond question that it was a joint lease as to both grantors and grantee. It was a joint lease in the true sense. The A. Veeder Company, which is a corporation, and the several individuals who, with the corporation, owned all of the land covered by the lease, all of whom were called ‘“Grantor” (whether one or more)’, acted as one in granting the lease; they acted unitedly; they bound themselves together as one individual; what one did each and all did. The land covered by the lease was treated as one tract. The recitals and declarations in the lease were not made by the corporation and the individuals separately; they were made unitedly and as one.

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Related

State of Louisiana v. William Felix Vail
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017
Vincent v. Hunt
221 So. 2d 577 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1969)
Landreneau v. Humble Oil & Refining Co.
210 So. 2d 345 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
210 So. 2d 340, 30 Oil & Gas Rep. 551, 1968 La. App. LEXIS 5118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fontenot-v-humble-oil-refining-co-lactapp-1968.