Louisiana Oil Refining Corporation v. Williams

127 So. 606, 170 La. 218, 1930 La. LEXIS 1695
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 5, 1930
DocketNo. 30165.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 127 So. 606 (Louisiana Oil Refining Corporation v. Williams) 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
Louisiana Oil Refining Corporation v. Williams, 127 So. 606, 170 La. 218, 1930 La. LEXIS 1695 (La. 1930).

Opinion

ROGERS, J.

The Louisiana Oil Refining Corporation, a Virginia corporation with its principal office-in this state in the parish of Caddo, in March, 1928, had in its possession the sum of $7,285.-50, which was claimed on the one hand by O. K. Allen and Whiter Hebert, and on the other hand by H. C. Elder, trustee, and J..Holland Williams. In order to settle the dispute and relieve itself of liability, the Louisiana Oil Refining Corporation, availing itself of the provisions of Act No. 123 of 1922, deposited the fund in its possession in the district court of the parish of Caddo and cited the claimants to appear therein and assert their claims.

O. K. Allen and Walter Hebert excepted to the jurisdiction of the court; H. C. Elder, trustee, and J. H. Williams answered the suit. The exceptions to the jurisdiction were overruled, and O. K. Allen filed his answer. C. E. Conaway purchased the interest of H. C. Elder, trustee, and J. Holland Williams, and was substituted as a party litigant. Subsequently, Conaway effected a settlement with Hebert, whereby Hebert was permitted to withdraw $4,857, the amount claimed by him, from the fund deposited, leaving in dispute between C. E. Conaway and O. K. Allen the ownership of $2,428.50, the; balance of the fund on deposit. On this issue, the court below decided in favor of Conaway, and Allen, appealed from the judgment.

' The fund of $7,285 originally deposited in-court by the Louisiana Oil Refining Corporation represented the purchase price of three-sixteenths of the oil produced from a well' drilled on a lot of ground situated in the town of Tullos. Allen claims that one-third, or $2,428.50 of the fund deposited, belongs to-him by virtue of his ownership of a one-sixteenth interest in an oil and gas lease on lot 5-of block 18 of the town of Tullos, as per plat recorded in Book M, page 166, of the records: *222 of the parish of La Salle, on which lot he alleges the oil well is-located. Per contra, Con-away claims, as the assignee of Elder, trustee, and J. H. Williams, that the fund belongs to him, for the reason that the oil from which the fund was derived was produced by a well located on lot 8 of block 18, in the town of Tullos, as per plat recorded in Book O, page 169, of the records of the parish of La Salle, which lot is owned by him.

In support of his exception to the jurisdiction of the court, the claimant, O. K. Allen, relies on the general rule prevailing in civil matters, that one must be sued at his domicile. Allen is a resident of the parish of Winn; Hebert is a resident of the parish of La Salle; and Elder and Williams are residents of the parish of Caddo.

But the domicile of the Louisiana Oil Refining Corporation is in the parish of Cad-do, and the fund in its possession, which is the subject of this litigation, is within the jurisdiction of the district court of that parish. Certainly, if exceptor were compelled to sue for the possession of the fund, his suit would have to be brought at the domicile of the custodian of the fund.

This is not a purely personal action as contemplated in the rule invoked by appellant, but it partakes of the nature of a proceeding in rem. The statute (Act No. 123 of 1922) under which it is brought provides, in section 2, for the manner of making the deposit, namely, that the application' shall be presented, with the money or a certified check, in the form of a petition- in a civil case to the judge having jurisdiction,- which application shall contain: “(1) The name and domicile of the applicant, (2) a full and- complete account of how applicant came into possession of said money, (3) the names and domiciles of all persons claiming said; money, or claiming a lien or privilege ■thereon, -and the names and domiciles of all persons having an interest in the money -deposited, within the knowledge of applicant.” Section 3 provides that the petition shall contain a prayer for the citation of all interested parties. And section 4 declares: “That service and citation of said application shall be made in the same form and manner as service and citation in civil suits, and the delays for answering shall be the same.”

We thus see that all claimants and parties interested in a fund held by any person, natural or artificial, are directly made parties to a suit instituted for the purpose of distributing the fund among those entitled thereto, and that they may be cited or summoned to answer by the court having jurisdiction over the res; i. e., the fund to be distributed.

Our conclusion is that the suit was properly brought in the parish of Caddo, and that-the district court of that parish correctly overruled the exception filed to its jurisdiction.

So far as the controversy between the defendants Conaway and Allen is concerned, we find -there is no dispute as to the titles or as to the physical location of the oil well. The sole question to be determined is, which plat shall control, the plat recorded in book M, according to which the well is on lot 5, or the plat recorded in Book O, according to which the well is on lot 8?

The town of Tullos comprises the E.. % of the S. E. % of Sec. 26, Tp. 10., R. 1 E., formerly Catahoula parish, but now, since Act No. 177 of 1908, in La Salle parish. This property was originally patented to Henry Tullos by the United States government on November 3,1891. Tullos sold to C. G. Woodbridge, who was chief engineer of the Houston Central & Northern Railroad, one-half, or every alternate lot, in the tract of land, for $1 cash and the further consideration that Wood- *224 bridge would erect a passenger and freight depot on the land and would lay off the SO acres in streets and avenues by a plat to be agreed upon. Woodbridge, in turn, sold the property to Guy Phillips, who assumed all the obligations imposed upon his vendor. Phillips and Tullos, on March 26, 1892, executed an act of partition, in which they set forth that the obligations assumed by Woodbridge and Phillips had been complied with; that the tract of land had been subdivided and a plat made thereof and filed in the clerk’s office of the parish of Catahoula; and that a copy of the plat was attached to the act of partition. According to the terms of the partition, lot 8 of block 18 was allotted to Phillips ; Tullos taking the lots bearing the odd numbers and Phillips taking the lots bearing the even numbers.

In an instrument filed for record in La Salle parish on October 2, 1S99, Guy Phillips declared that he acquired the property for the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company. Subsequently the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company sold the property to the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company. The latter company sold lot 8 of block 18 of the town of Tullos to J. Holland Williams. On March 28,1927, the lot and the well thereon was conveyed to H. C. Elder, trustee.

The lots assigned to Henry Tullos in the partition between him and C. E. Woodbridge were sold by the purported heirs of Tullos to Calvin Davis. Later, in a partition between the purported heirs of Dr. C. Davis and J. Calvin Davis, the latter acquired the lots in question. On August 18, 1925, J. Calvin Davis conveyed to Walter Hebert, certain property, including lot 5 of block 18 “situated in the town of Tullos, La Salle parish, Louisiana, as per original plat of said town, copy of which is on file in the clerk’s office of La Salle parish.” Walter Hebert executed an oil and gas lease in favor of O. K.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hibernia Nat. Bank v. ORLEANS REG. HOSP.
682 So. 2d 1291 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1996)
Agency Management Corp. v. Green Acres Realty, Inc.
286 So. 2d 465 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1974)
Calhoun v. Huffman
217 So. 2d 733 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1969)
American Bank & Trust Co. v. Trinity Universal Insurance
205 So. 2d 35 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1967)
State ex rel. Langridge v. Harris
138 So. 2d 197 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1962)
Johnson v. Mansfield Hardwood Lumber Company
159 F. Supp. 104 (W.D. Louisiana, 1958)
McClure v. Wade
235 S.W.2d 835 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1950)
Transo Investment Corporation v. Oakley
37 So. 2d 560 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1948)
Liquidation of Canal Bank & Trust Co.
30 So. 2d 841 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1947)
Selber Bros. v. Newstadt's Shoe Stores
14 So. 2d 10 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1943)
Amerada Petroleum Corp. v. State Mineral Board
14 So. 2d 61 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1943)
Succession of Butterworth
196 So. 39 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1940)
Brownfield v. Southern Amusement Co.
198 So. 670 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1940)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
127 So. 606, 170 La. 218, 1930 La. LEXIS 1695, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/louisiana-oil-refining-corporation-v-williams-la-1930.