Hogan Exploration, Inc. v. Placid Oil Co.

427 So. 2d 546, 76 Oil & Gas Rep. 482, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 7714
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 3, 1983
DocketNo. 82-532
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 427 So. 2d 546 (Hogan Exploration, Inc. v. Placid Oil 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
Hogan Exploration, Inc. v. Placid Oil Co., 427 So. 2d 546, 76 Oil & Gas Rep. 482, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 7714 (La. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

KNOLL, Judge.

The sole issue on appeal is the use of a writ of mandamus by appellees, Hogan Exploration, Inc., John J. Saye, Christie lies Saye, Erwin Saye, Nan Dobson Saye, John J. McKeithen, Marjorie Funderburk McKeithen, Robert F. Meredith, III, Cary-lyn Hancock Meredith, Richard Keller, Ann Dunn Keller, Thomas L. Gibbs, Pamela Thomas Gibbs, Troy J. Cox, Marlin Exploration, Inc., Alton H. Howard and Mamie Meador Howard to compel Placid Oil Company to pay a sum of money for oil purchased when a serious dispute as to title of the minerals was not resolved. We reverse.

Placid filed a motion for summary judgment contending that Hogan’s mandamus proceeding was an inappropriate vehicle to resolve the issue because of the title controversy. The trial court denied the motion. The matter was tried resulting in judgment in favor of Hogan, et al., in the sum of $178,598.33 plus legal interest from date of judicial demand, and attorney fees of $9,000.00.

Hogan Exploration, Inc., (hereinafter referred to as Hogan) was the agent and operator for the mineral lessees. Hogan drilled the McMurry # 2 well, affecting the mineral interests in the NWVi of SEVi of Section 28, T8N-R3E, LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. Placid Oil Company (hereinafter referred to as Placid) contends it owns the mineral interest in McMurry # 2 well, as per a mineral deed covering the same property.

Placid’s title to the disputed mineral interests is a mineral deed dated October 11, 1979, filed in the public records of LaSalle Parish on October 18, 1979. The deed conveys all the mineral rights using the following description:

“Township 8 North, Range 3 East, Section 28 NW/4 of SE/4 less portion of which timber has been deadened and in cultivation, as reserved in acts of sale from Funny Louis Lumber Company of May 13, 1911 — 25.00.”

The trial court held this mineral deed void as to third persons, therefore it could not be relied upon as a basis for consideration of the last record owner document. The following expression by the court in State ex rel. Boykin v. Hope Manufacturing Company, 167 So. 506 (La.App. 2nd Cir.1936), summarizes a misapplication of the mandamus [548]*548provision as in the case at bar, under the last record owner statute:

“Mandamus is an extraordinary remedy and resort to it to collect or enforce unliq-uidated obligations was never intended nor admitted. It is admitted when there is no adequate remedy at law and where ' the issue is free from doubt.
... any law designed to transform the functions of the writ of mandamus into an agency for the enforcement of disputed rights and obligations, for the solution of which necessarily there must be a trial, as in ordinary cases, should be free of doubt of such purpose and be so clear that judicial interpretation would be unnecessary to ascertain its meaning.” (emphasis added)

See also Levy v. Billeaud, 399 So.2d 775 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1981); Scott v. Hunt Oil Co., 219 So.2d 779 (La.App. 2nd Cir.1969); and State Democratic Comm. v. Sinagra, 79 So.2d 94 (La.App. 1st Cir.1955).

The use of an extraordinary proceeding, in this case a writ of mandamus, is not sanctioned by law when the law provides relief by ordinary means. LSA-C. C.P. Art. 3862:

“A writ of mandamus may be issued in all cases where the law provides no relief by ordinary means or where the delay involved in obtaining ordinary relief may cause injustice; ...”

We are not expressing an opinion regarding the title dispute. However, it is necessary to outline the factual existence of the two chains of title for the rationale of our findings.

The first chain affected the NWVi of the SEVi and emanated from a deed Dennis Rozier executed to August Mann. Funny Louis Lumber Company, predecessor in title to Bodcaw Company, subsequently acquired the August Mann interest. On October 11, 1979, Placid purchased by quit claim mineral deed the minerals in the NWVi of the SEVi from Bodcaw.

A second chain of title arose by Dennis Rozier conveying portions of the NWVi of the SEVi in 1910 to the ancestors of title to Mr. and Mrs. Wayne P. McMurry, Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Hawthorne and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Farrel Mitchell.

The Honorable Jimmie Dean, Tax Assessor for LaSalle Parish, testified that the land owners were individually assessed taxes on the disputed quarter-quarter section, and, Bodcaw and its predecessors in title, from whom Placid’s mineral title is derived, had been paying taxes on twenty-five acres of the same disputed quarter-quarter section since 1912.

On September 2, 1981, (prior to Hogan’s drilling) Hogan attempted to obtain a quit claim deed from Placid. Being unsuccessful Hogan then attempted to obtain an oil and gas lease of Placid’s interests, which Placid refused. Following these negotiations, Hogan’s president, Robert F. Meredith, III, stated at trial that a second opinion was obtained. Discussing the results of the second opinion, he testified:

“They had, they had a chain of title which indicated that they had a claim to it. We had a chain of title which indicated that we had a claim to it. Our attorneys investigated it thoroughly and decided that our claim was superior to theirs.” (emphasis added)

Acting on their own “opinion” rather than properly litigating the disputed title in an ordinary proceeding, Hogan commenced drilling the McMurry # 2 well.

There are two separate and distinct chains of title shown in the records of La-Salle Parish affecting the disputed forty acres. Both chains arose from a common ancestor in title, Dennis Rozier:

(1) In 1903 to August Mann which contained a clause in the property description, specifically excepting those parts of the land on which timber had been deadened, and, which was in cultivation. This description was repeated through the years. In 1979, Placid purchased the mineral rights affecting the NWVi of the SEVi by a mineral deed from Bodcaw, which is the last instrument emanating from the 1903 transaction;

[549]*549(2) In 1910 when he conveyed portions of the disputed area to the ancestors in title of appellees.

Placid’s 1979 mineral deed is the most recent recorded transaction affecting title to the property with the exception of a 1981 sale of one acre in the NWVi of the SEVi to the McMurrys. LSA-R.S. 31:210 and 211 provide:

Article 210

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Related

Hogan Exploration, Inc. v. Placid Oil Co.
433 So. 2d 1053 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1983)

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427 So. 2d 546, 76 Oil & Gas Rep. 482, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 7714, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hogan-exploration-inc-v-placid-oil-co-lactapp-1983.