Hamm v. Lorain Coal & Dock Co.

2022 Ohio 1048
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 30, 2022
Docket20 BE 0028
StatusPublished

This text of 2022 Ohio 1048 (Hamm v. Lorain Coal & Dock Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hamm v. Lorain Coal & Dock Co., 2022 Ohio 1048 (Ohio Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

[Cite as Hamm v. Lorain Coal & Dock Co., 2022-Ohio-1048.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SEVENTH APPELLATE DISTRICT BELMONT COUNTY

H. JOSEPH HAMM ET AL.,

Plaintiffs-Appellees,

v.

THE LORAIN COAL & DOCK COMPANY ET AL.,

Defendants-Appellants.

OPINION AND JUDGMENT ENTRY Case No. 20 BE 0028

Civil Appeal from the Court of Common Pleas of Belmont County, Ohio Case No. 19-CV-17

BEFORE: Gene Donofrio, Carol Ann Robb, David A. D’Apolito, Judges.

JUDGMENT: Affirmed

Atty. Erik A. Schramm, Sr., Atty. Erik A. Schramm, Jr., Atty. Kyle W. Bickford, Atty. John Estadt, Hanlon, Estadt, McCormick & Schramm Co., LPA, 46457 National Road West, St. Clairsville, Ohio 43950, for Plaintiffs-Appellees and Atty. Phillip Kushner, Atty. Michael Hamed, Atty. Brandon Mordue, Kushner & Hamed Co., LPA, 1375 East Ninth Street, Suite 1930, Cleveland, Ohio 44114, for Defendants- Appellants. –2–

Dated: March 30, 2022

Donofrio, J.

{¶1} Defendants-appellants, Judith Saunders, Edward N. Saunders V, James Saunders, and Christopher Saunders (the Saunders appellants), appeal from Belmont County Common Pleas Court judgments granting default judgment and summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs-appellees, H. Joseph Hamm, D. Joyce Yazombek, Trustee of the D. Joyce Yazombek Revocable Living Trust, Joseph Hicks Jr., Maxine Hicks, David Ellison, Elizabeth Ellison, Benjamin Taylor, Stephanie Taylor, Donald Lawson Jr., Cheryl Lawson, and Alex Kolb (appellees), on appellees’ claim to quiet title to the oil and gas rights underlying approximately 155 acres of property in Belmont County. {¶2} This case involves the ownership of the oil and gas underlying approximately 155 acres of property in Belmont County. Appellees are Belmont County residents who leased their oil and gas mineral estates for development. {¶3} On September 24, 1900, Carlos Leatherwood conveyed all “minerals, oil, gas and other substances” underlying the property to American Sheet Steel Company (the Leatherwood Conveyance). American Sheet Steel Company later changed its name to American Sheet and Tin Plate Company and then merged with the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation. {¶4} On December 16, 1937, defendant The Lorain Coal & Dock Company (Lorain Coal) obtained the mineral interest at issue by warranty deed from the Carnegie- Illinois Steel Corporation (the Carnegie Conveyance). Lorain Coal was founded in part by Edward N. Saunders. {¶5} Edward’s son Edward Jr. worked for Lorain Coal. When Edward Jr. died, his will provided that the residue of his estate, which included his shares in Lorain Coal, would be placed in a trust (the ENS Jr. Trust) for the benefit of his descendants, including his son Edward III. The Saunders appellants are Edward III’s heirs. {¶6} On August 5, 1963 Lorain Coal filed a certificate of dissolution. Lorain Coal still held the mineral rights it acquired through the Carnegie Conveyance at the time of its dissolution. At that time, the ENS Jr. Trust held 2580 common shares of Lorain

Case No. 20 BE 0028 –3–

Coal. Eventually, the ENS Jr. Trust was terminated. Sometime later, Bonnie Saunders, another one of Edward III’s children, assigned her interest in Lorain Coal to the Saunders appellants. {¶7} In 2018, appellees sent the dissolved Lorain Coal certified mail notices of their intent to file an abandonment claim under the 2006 Ohio Dormant Mineral Act (DMA) at its last known address. After non-delivery, on August 21, 2018, appellees published notices of abandonment in the local Belmont County newspaper. Then between September 21, and October 9, 2018, appellees filed affidavits of abandonment with the Belmont County Recorder stating that the mineral interests from the Carnegie Conveyance had been abandoned. {¶8} On October 15 and 16, 2018, defendant Anne Czarniecki assigned a mineral interest to defendant Thunderbird Global Development, LLC, and they both filed claims to preserve claiming to be holders of the severed minerals. Czarniecki claimed to be an heir to Frances Hannay, who Czarniecki said held shares in the Lorain Coal & Dock Company when the company dissolved in 1963. Czarniecki assigned her interest to Thunderbird.1 {¶9} On January 14, 2019, appellees filed a complaint against Lorain Coal and Lorain Coal’s former shareholders, officers, and directors, and the Thunderbird appellants. Appellees asserted claims under the DMA and the Ohio Marketable Title Act (MTA) as well as claims for tortious interference with a contract, tortious interference with a business relationship, slander of title, fraud, waiver, estoppel, laches, and abandonment. Appellees published the complaint in order to obtain service by publication. The Saunders appellants filed their answer and counterclaim on August 30, 2019.

1 The “Thunderbird appellants” who have appealed in Case No. 20-BE-0030 are Thunderbird Global Development, LLC; Christopher E. Banik and Frontier Group, LLC; Anne D. Czarniecki; Anne D. Czarniecki, Trustee of the Helen M. Dixon Irrevocable Trust; Mary Boswell; Mark Boswell; Charlotte Moyler; James Moyler; Constance Reel Johnson; Stanley Bryce Johnson III; Anne Myers; Joseph Myers; Charlotte Kendall; Kelli A. Day; Kelli A. Day, Trustee of the Robert H. Day and Julie A. Day Family Trust; Caroline Lindeke; Albert Lindeke III; Catherine Daubek; Frederick Harold Stinchfield; Cheryl Stinchfield; John Harold Stinchfield; Susan Stinchfield; Jonathan Darrah; Jirapa Darrah; Kathryn Stinchfield; Taylor Saunders Stinchfield; Charles Thomas Stinchfield; Mary Godley; William Harvey Barrett Jr.; Allen Hannay; Deborah Morrison; and Robert Morrison.

Case No. 20 BE 0028 –4–

{¶10} On September 13, 2019, appellees filed a motion for default judgment against Lorain Coal, including its former shareholders, officers, directors, and their heirs. On September 17, the trial court granted the motion for default judgment and ordered any right to the oil and gas interest underlying appellees’ properties and claimed by Lorain Coal and its former shareholders, officers, directors, and their heirs was terminated and extinguished and title was quieted in favor of appellees. The court found that Lorain Coal and the others had failed to enter an appearance in the lawsuit. {¶11} On September 20, 2019, the Saunders appellants filed a motion for summary judgment. Appellees in turn filed a motion for summary judgment. {¶12} The Saunders appellants subsequently filed a motion for clarification and relief from judgment. Defendant Thunderbird Global Development filed a motion for reconsideration, correction, and vacation of default judgment. The trial court sustained the motions in part in an October 9, 2019 judgment entry ruling that default judgment would stand but was limited only to non-answering defendants, to cut off any interest they may have, with no effect on the answering defendants. {¶13} On October 17, 2019, the trial court entered a nunc pro tunc judgment entry, consented to by all parties. It granted default judgment against Lorain Coal and its former shareholders, officers, and directors and ordered any right to the oil and gas underlying appellees’ properties claimed by the above parties was terminated and extinguished and title was quieted in favor of appellees. It also added language that the default judgment did not apply to any answering defendants (including the Saunders appellants) and that the case would continue as to the answering defendants. {¶14} The trial court subsequently held a hearing on the summary judgment motions. It then denied the Saunders appellants’ motions and granted appellees’ motion. The court provided no reasons for its decision. On the Saunders appellants’ request, the court later issued a judgment entry stating that any further claims did not involve the Saunders appellants and that they were excused from further proceedings.

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Bluebook (online)
2022 Ohio 1048, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hamm-v-lorain-coal-dock-co-ohioctapp-2022.