Haynes v. King

52 So. 2d 531, 219 La. 160, 1951 La. LEXIS 858
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 19, 1951
Docket39099
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 52 So. 2d 531 (Haynes v. King) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haynes v. King, 52 So. 2d 531, 219 La. 160, 1951 La. LEXIS 858 (La. 1951).

Opinions

HAMITER, Justice.

As the owner and possessor of the Southeast Quarter (SEjTt) of Section 13, Township 23 North, Range 10 West, Webster Parish, containing 160 acres more or less, plaintiff, John E. Haynes, instituted this suit to have cancelled from the conveyance records of the named parish a certain instrument which recognizes the several defendants as owners of mineral rights in and under the described land. The theory of the action is that such mineral rights, termed servitudes under our jurisprudence, have become extinguished by the liberative prescription of ten years because of nonuser.

The judgment of the district court rejected the demands of plaintiff and from it he is appealing.

To recite the pertinent facts of the case chronologically, one Ardis C. Burns, plaintiff’s author in title, purchased from some of the defendants between December 29, 1927, and January 11, 1930, both dates inclusive, approximately 100 acres of the property in question, the acquisition having been made in separate 20 acre tracts and in each of the deeds a portion of the minerals was reserved. From such vendors the remaining defendants acquired by purchase certain interests in the mineral rights so reserved.

On June 17, 1937, which was prior to the accrual of the liberative prescription on any of the servitudes established by the reservations, the then landowner Ardis C. Burns [163]*163'joined with all of the servitude owners (the defendants) in the execution of an oil, gas and mineral lease in favor of one R. E. Anderson for a primary term of five years. This lease expired on June 17, 1942.

Several months thereafter, specifically on December 16, 1942, Ardis C. Burns (the landowner) and the defendants herein (the .servitude claimants) executed together an instrument entitled “Declaration of Interest” in which they declared in part as follows :

“The undersigned certify that we are the legal owners of the oil, gas and other minerals in and under and that may be produced from the following described lands, situated in the Parish of Webster, State of Louisiana, to-wit:
“SE^ of Section 13, Township 23 N., Range 10 W., estimated to contain 160 acres, more or less.
“The undersigned further certify that our interest in said minerals is subject to that certain oil, gas and mineral lease bearing date as of December 16th, 1942, executed by us in favor of Hunt Oil Company, a Delaware Corporation of Dallas, Texas.
“We further certify that to settle any question of title to the oil, gas and other minerals in and under and that may be produced from the above described lands, the ownership thereof is understood by all parties hereto to be as follows

(Here follows a detailed description, including the amount in mineral acres, of the interest owned by each party.)

“This agreement is binding on our heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, and is executed by us to settle any dispute that might exist as to the ownership of the minerals underlying said above described properties as to this date, December 16th, 1942.”

Simultaneously with the signing of that instrument Burns and such mineral claimants executed a joint oil, gas and mineral lease (to which reference is made in the declaration) in favor of the Hunt Oil Company, it having a primary term of ten years.

The lease was filed for record in the office of the Clerk of Court (the recorder of conveyances) of Webster Parish on December 17, 1942, but the declaration of interest was not deposited there until December 28, 1942.

On December 19, 1942, or two days after the recordation of the Hunt Oil Company lease but prior to that of the declaration of interest, Ardis C. Burns executed a notarial act by which he transferred and conveyed to the -plaintiff herein, John E. Haynes, the 160 acre tract in question. The deed, which reserved and excepted from the conveyance one-fourth of the oil, gas and other minerals in and under the land, was filed for record on December 21, 1942.

When purchasing the property plaintiff, according to his own testimony given at the trial of this case, was informed by Burns that he (Burns) and these defendants had just granted a lease on it to the Hunt Oil Company and also that he (Burns) owned all of the mineral rights, in and under the [165]*165land except about 47 acres (mineral acres) which the others (the defendants) claimed. Plaintiff further testified that no wells had ever been drilled on the land in search of oil or gas.

At the hearing in this court of the appeal of plaintiff, which was from a judgment rejecting his demands, the opening argument of his counsel was only that since the assailed declaration of interest instrument’ executed by Burns and the defendants was not of record when he acquired'the land he was not bound by the transaction which it evidenced under the doctrine of the landmark case of McDuffie v. Walker, 125 La. 152, 51 So. 100. To the same effect is the argument in the brief filed in his behalf. Thus, to quote the brief in full, we find:

“The appellant in this case acquired by deed on December 19, 1942, from Ardis C. Burns, the Southeast Quarter of Section 13, Township ’23 North, Range 10 West, Webster Parish, Louisiana, estimated to contain 160 acres, more or less. Said deed was filed for record in the Conveyance Records of Webster Parish, Louisiana, on December 21, 1942. On December 28, 1942, seven days later, there was a document filed for record by the defendants and appellees herein, in which Ardis C. Burns had recognized their interest in certain minerals. This is a suit by Mr. Haynes, appellant herein, to have said document, which was filed for record seven days after his deed was recorded, cancelled from the records' as a cloud on his title to the minerals thereunder.
“It appears to us that these facts which are above stated and which are borne out by the record, bring this case under the ruling and doctrine set out first in McDuffie v. Walker, 125 La. 152, 51 So. 100, which has been reaffirmed hundreds of ■ times since; and in our opinion, unless those decisions can be upset, then the judgment of the district court in this case will have to be reversed, and that is what we are asking this court to do.
“Therefore, we respectfully ask that the judgment of the lower court be reversed and judgment rendered in favor of appellant, as prayed for.”

However, during the course of the oral argument made by counsel for appellees some of the members of this court raised the additional issues, through questions propounded, of whether the servitudes had prescribed prior to the execution of the two instruments of December 16, 1942, and, if they had, whether the prescribed servitudes could be and were revived. Answering, appellees’ counsel contended and argued (1) that the joint five year lease granted in June, 1937, to R. E. Anderson (prescription had not then accrued), together with other acts of the parties, effected an interruption of the ten year prescription then running and caused it to commence anew as of that date; and (2) that if such lease be construed only as extending the -prescriptive period for and during its five year term, [167]

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Bluebook (online)
52 So. 2d 531, 219 La. 160, 1951 La. LEXIS 858, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haynes-v-king-la-1951.