Roberts v. Cooper

127 So. 2d 369
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 2, 1961
Docket9395
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 127 So. 2d 369 (Roberts v. Cooper) 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
Roberts v. Cooper, 127 So. 2d 369 (La. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

127 So.2d 369 (1961)

J. I. ROBERTS, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Elzie Montgomery COOPER et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 9395.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

February 2, 1961.
Rehearing Denied March 10, 1961.

Barham, Wright & Barham, Ruston, for appellants.

Tucker, Bronson & Martin, Shreveport, for plaintiff-appellee.

George Fink, Monroe, for defendant-appellee Elmo Mayfield.

Before HARDY, AYRES and BOLIN, JJ.

HARDY, Judge.

This is a suit for a declaratory judgment instituted by plaintiff, J. I. Roberts, as the lessee under three separate oil, gas and mineral lease conveyances covering a described tract of land containing 38.5 acres in Lincoln Parish. Plaintiff prayed for judgment recognizing the validity of his leases, further judgment declaring and fixing the ownership of the one-eighth royalty interest, provided in said instruments, as between several groups of defendants. Responsive to a plea of nonjoinder interposed by one group of defendants, the Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Company was made a party defendant. There was judgment (1) recognizing plaintiff as the valid owner of the three oil, gas and mineral leases embracing the ownership of all such rights in and to the property described; (2) recognizing the defendants, Robert L. Fuller and Elmo Mayfield as owners of the royalty interest; (3) allocating the royalty accruing under the provisions of plaintiff's lease to Robert L. Fuller and Elmo Mayfield in the proportions set forth, subject to the allocations made in favor of the defendants, Elzie Montgomery Cooper and Hattie Montgomery Ham, as described in the judgment, *370 and, finally, the judgment rejected any and all rights asserted by the other defendants. From the judgment only the defendants, Add Thompson and C. C. Moore, have appealed. During pendency of the appeal the defendant, Robert L. Fuller died, and, by motion before this court, Mrs. Alma Wilks Fuller has been substituted as the sole heir at law and proper representative in lieu of decedent.

Out of the numerous parties originally involved there remain only the appellants, Add Thompson and C. C. Moore, and the appellees, Mrs. Fuller and Elmo Mayfield. Appellants, Thompson and Moore, claim the ownership, in equal proportions, of an undivided one-fourth interest in and to the minerals under the 38½ acre tract of land described, which was awarded by the judgment from which they have appealed, to Fuller and Mayfield.

Despite the multiplicity of parties, the complex pleadings and the voluminous record, there is no dispute as to the material facts and only a single issue of law is presented for determination.

Elzie Montgomery Cooper and Hattie Montgomery Ham, fee owners of the Northeast Quarter of Southwest Quarter (NE/4 of SW/4), Section 31, Township 19 North, Range 2 West, located in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, less one and one-half acres, by conveyance dated December 21, 1935, sold to C. C. Moore one-fourth of the oil, gas and other minerals in and under said tract of land, and C. C. Moore subsequently conveyed a one-eighth mineral interest in and under said property to Add Thompson.

By conveyances dated February 22nd and February 26, 1949, the said fee owners conveyed an undivided 20/29.25 of the minerals in the South 9.25 acres of the property and an undivided 20/29.25 of the minerals in the entire tract, less the South 9.25 acres, to Robert L. Fuller. By conveyance dated March 19, 1951 the fee owner of the South 9.25 acres of the tract conveyed such additional interest as she then may have owned in the minerals under the South 9.25 acres to Robert L. Fuller. Under these described conveyances Fuller claimed ownership of an undivided 20/29.25 interest in the minerals under the entire tract, less the South 9.25 acres thereof and all of the minerals under the South 9.25 acres.

Under a sheriff's deed dated September 19, 1951, the appellant, Elmo Mayfield, claimed ownership of an undivided 9.25/29.25 interest in the property involved, less the South 9.25 acres thereof.

The judgment appealed from recognized the Fuller-Mayfield interests in the proportions above asserted and allocated the royalty payments from production, in which the said described property participated, in accordance therewith, subject to specified interests of Elzie Montgomery Cooper and Hattie Montgomery Ham, from the beginning of production up to the respective dates upon which they divested themselves of their remaining mineral interests in the property involved.

On November 22, 1943, a voluntary pooling and unitization agreement was prepared and circulated by the Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Company under which the West Half of Section 31, Township 19 North, Range 2 West (in which the property here involved was located) and the East Half of Section 36, Township 19 North, Range 3 West were incorporated into a voluntary drilling unit. In this connection it should be noted at this point that the Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Company was not the owner of the lease on the tract of land here involved.

The said pooling and unitization agreement was circulated in counterparts, which were signed, among others, by Elzie Montgomery Cooper, Hattie Montgomery Ham, C. C. Moore and Add Thompson, but not by J. I. Roberts, plaintiff in this suit and the lessee of the property involved.

Acting under the above described unitization agreement the Arkansas-Louisiana Gas *371 Company drilled a well on the unit, but not on the tract involved in this suit, to an approximate depth of six thousand feet and abandoned said well as a dry hole, all in the year 1944. In December, 1949, pursuant to an order of the Department of Conservation unitizing the West Half of Section 31 and the East Half of Section 36, the Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Company deepened the well which had been drilled and abandoned in 1944 and completed the same as a producer. It is to be observed that the date of completion as a producing well (December, 1949) fell within the ten-year period beginning November 22, 1943 (the date of the voluntary pooling and unitization agreement) but well beyond the ten-year period beginning in 1935, the year in which the appellants, Thompson and Moore, acquired their mineral interest.

The sole question presented by this appeal requires a determination as to whether the voluntary pooling and unitization agreement executed in 1943 constituted an interruption of prescription which preserved the mineral rights of appellants, Thompson and Moore.

Appellees, Fuller and Mayfield, rely upon their pleas of ten-year prescription, liberandi causa, asserted in their answer to plaintiff's action, contending that the voluntary pooling and unitization agreement did not constitute an interruption of the running of prescription as against the mineral interests previously acquired by Thompson and Moore.

As authority in support of their claim appellees primarily rely upon Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Company v. Thompson et al., 222 La. 868, 64 So.2d 202, which involved an interpretation of the effect of the identical pooling and unitization agreement which is involved under the facts of the instant case.

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Bluebook (online)
127 So. 2d 369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roberts-v-cooper-lactapp-1961.