Lawton v. Anthony

92 So. 2d 747, 7 Oil & Gas Rep. 257, 1957 La. App. LEXIS 644
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 5, 1957
DocketNo. 8612
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 92 So. 2d 747 (Lawton v. Anthony) 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
Lawton v. Anthony, 92 So. 2d 747, 7 Oil & Gas Rep. 257, 1957 La. App. LEXIS 644 (La. Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

AYRES, Judge.

This is an action in jactitation or slander of title. Plaintiffs assert possession in themselves as owners of the minerals and mineral rights of a certain tract or parcel of land comprising 9.58 acres situated in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, the title to which, in fee simple, they also claim. Plaintiffs charged that the defendants, Helen C. Ballard Anthony, doing business as States Oil Company, Moise S. Hirsh, George T. Monsour, and Tri-State Realty Company, are slandering their title to the aforesaid minerals and mineral rights by claiming and asserting interests therein under the following oil, gas and mineral leases:

(1) A lease executed by William S. Hirsh November 10, 1949, in favor of Frank J. Hall, and

(2) A lease executed by Tri-State Realty Company March 16, 1951, in favor of W. F. Addison, and that, in addition, the defendants, Hirsh and Monsour, claim that petitioners’ minerals and mineral rights were included in the aforesaid leases, as well as in a declaration of unitization, combining and unitizing them with certain other oil, gas and mineral leases in Section 19, Township 17 North, Range 15 West, in which section the property in contest lies, in connection with which unit-ization they assert a division order was signed by them setting out their ownership and interests.

The issue presented to the trial court and likewise tendered on this appeal for determination is whether plaintiffs established possession in themselves as owners of the aforesaid land and the minerals and mineral rights thereto as a basis or prerequisite for maintaining the jactitory action. The trial court held plaintiffs’ possession sufficient to support the action and, accordingly, ordered defendants to institute an action in revendication within six months, and, in default thereof, that plaintiffs be quieted in their ownership and possession.

From the judgment thus rendered, defendants Hirsh and Monsour appealed. Plaintiffs have answered the appeal, pray[750]*750ing that, in default of defendants’ instituting said action in revendication, the two aforesaid leases be canceled and erased from the records of Caddo Parish, Louisiana.

It is firmly established in the jurisprudence of this State that an action in jactitation, or slander of title, can only be maintained by one in actual possession as owner of the real estate or minerals involved and only against the one not in possession thereof. Russ v. Stephens, La.App., 90 So.2d 501; Jantz v. Long Bell Petroleum Co., Inc., 229 La. 821, 86 So.2d 918; Lenard v. Shell Oil Co., Inc., 211 La. 265, 29 So.2d 844; International Paper Co. v. Louisiana Central Lumber Co., 202 La. 621, 12 So.2d 659; Marks v. Collier, 216 La. 1, 43 So.2d 16; Miller v. Albert Hanson Lumber Co., 134 La. 225, 63 So. 883.

In a slander of title action, the question of title is not at issue, except incidentally and in order to establish whether plaintiffs have the corporeal possession of, and are possessing, the property as owners. Accordingly, plaintiffs base their claim of title and ownership on a chain of title emanating from the United States Government through a certificate ’of title dated August 2, 1842, conveying the whole of the aforesaid section to one John Page, plaintiffs’ ancestor in title, who, on April 27, 1857, granted a right of way or servitude for a railroad over and across said land to the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Texas Railroad Company, predecessor to the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad Company and the Illinois Central Railroad Company. Possession of the minerals and mineral rights on the aforesaid land, as owners, is claimed by plaintiffs by virtue of their title to both land and minerals and by their actual physical corporeal possession of said property.

The documentary evidence discloses the aforesaid grant to John Page by the United States Government and the right of way grant to the Railroad Company by John Page, as well as title in plaintiffs by conveyances originating with John Page. No other alienation, of either land or minerals under the aforesaid tract, is shown to have been made by either plaintiffs or their ancestors in title. Consequently, plaintiffs have established, at least, prima facie, and sufficient to maintain this action, ownership of the land and, therefore, of the minerals and mineral rights appertaining thereto, as the ownership of the soil carries with it the ownership of all that is directly above and underneath it. LSA-C.C. Art. 505. While possession properly applies only to a corporeal thing, movable or immovable, the possession of incorporeal rights, such as servitudes and other rights of that nature, is only a quasi possession and is exercised by the species of possession of which these rights are susceptible. LSA-C.C. Art. 3432. Oil, gas and mineral leases, and contracts applying to and affecting these leases or the right to reduce oil, gas and/or other minerals to possession, together with the rights, privileges and obligations resulting therefrom, are classified as real rights and incorporeal immovable property, which may be asserted, protected and defended in the same manner as may be the ownership or possession of other immovable property by the holder of these rights in any action, or by any procedure, available to the owner of immovable property or land. LSA-R.S. 9:1105.

As oil and gas, by their fugitive nature, are not susceptible of actual occupancy and physical possession so long as they remain in the ground, ownership of the land, with the right to mine and otherwise explore for production, coupled with the actual physical corporeal possession through another who holds and exercises possession for and under authority of the owner, constitutes sufficient possession to maintain and support an action for slander of title. One may possess a thing not by oneself but also by or through other persons. LSA-C.C. Art. 3433. For instance, it was stated in Allison v. Maroun, 193 La. 286, 190 So. 408, that a lessee in [751]*751possession under a mineral lease holds possession for and under the lessor and that the lessee’s possession inures to the lessor. Where the owner of the land, also claiming ownership of the mineral rights thereunder, possesses under a title making no reservation or mention of any previous reservation of the mineral rights, his possession of the land likewise constitutes possession of the mineral rights. Allison v. Wideman, 210 La. 314, 26 So.2d 826, 829; Childs v. Porter-Wadley Lumber Co., 190 La. 308, 318, 182 So. 516, 519.

It is likewise well established in our jurisprudence that one having possession of the surface of a tract of land as owner may maintain a jactitation suit against one who slanders his title by claiming mineral rights in the land. Dixon v. American Liberty Oil Co., 226 La. 911, 77 So.2d 533; Ware v. Baucum, 221 La. 259, 59 So.2d 182; Lenard v. Shell Oil Co., supra; International Paper Co. v. Louisiana Central Lumber Co., 202 La. 621, 12 So.2d 659; Frost-Johnson Lumber Co. v. Sailing’s Heirs, 150 La. 756, 91 So. 207.

We, therefore, hold that the actual physical corporeal possession held and exercised by the Railroad Company under the grant by plaintiffs’ ancestor in title is possession for and under plaintiffs and inures to their benefit, and that such possession, with plaintiffs’ ownership of and the right to mine, drill and otherwise explore for the minerals thereunder, constitutes isufficient possession upon which an action for slander of title may be predicated.

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Bluebook (online)
92 So. 2d 747, 7 Oil & Gas Rep. 257, 1957 La. App. LEXIS 644, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lawton-v-anthony-lactapp-1957.