Roy v. Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Co.

7 So. 2d 895, 200 La. 233, 1942 La. LEXIS 1193
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 30, 1942
DocketNo. 36060.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 7 So. 2d 895 (Roy v. Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Co.) 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
Roy v. Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Co., 7 So. 2d 895, 200 La. 233, 1942 La. LEXIS 1193 (La. 1942).

Opinion

HIGGINS, Justice.

The lessor instituted this action to have forfeited and cancelled from the public records an oil and gas lease on the ground that the lessee and sublessee refused to pay the royalties alleged to be due him in accordance with the terms of the lease. In the alternative, the plaintiff asked for an accounting covering the alleged balance of the royalties said to be due under the lease from the operation of four gas wells by the lessee and two oil wells by the sub-lessee on the premises. The defendants denied that the plaintiff was- entitled to the claimed additional royalties under the lease and averred that the construction placed upon the provisions of the lease by the plaintiff was untenable. The district judge dismissed the suit and the plaintiff appealed.

*236 The plaintiff contends that a certain colorless fluid produced by the gas wells through separators is a high grade crude, oil resulting from the normal operation of the gas wells and, therefore, comes within the oil royalty clause of the lease and not the gas royalty provision thereof.

The lessee contends that the colorless fluid produced by the gas wells through the means of separators is gasoline within the meaning of the provisions of the lease covering the payment of royalty on the gas produced frorn the wells and that as all of this royalty has been paid, the plaintiff’s additional claims for royalty are without' merit.

The plaintiff brought the sublessee into the suit by a supplemental petition. The basis of the claim for additional royalty is that the sublessee sold the oil produced from the two oil wells on the premises at a price less than the p'osted price prevailing in the Sligo Field, without the plaintiff’s consent. The defense is that theré was not any posted price in the Sligo Field for crude oil and that the sublessee obtained the best possible price for the plaintiff’s oil, or the same amount as it did for its own, with his consent.

We have carefully studied the voluminous record and the exhaustive briefs of the litigants and have reached the conclusion that the views expressed by the learned trial judge, in his original and supplemental opinions, are correct and, therefore, quote them with approval:

“Plaintiff sued the Arkansas Louisiana Gas Company to cancel an oil and gas lease dated June 30, 1933, granted by plaintiff and now held by defendant, for failure to pay the royalty or rentals due thereunder. Plaintiff also sued the Triangle Drilling Company a sublessee of the other defendant, to whom had been sublet an undivided one-half interest in and to said lease insofar only as said lease affects and applies to the strata situated between a depth of 2,800 feet and 3,200 feet, under the allegation that this latter company also failed to pay the royalty on oil as provided in said lease, and, in the alternative, prays for an accounting from defendants.

“The lease executed by plaintiff covers the following lands:

“The North half (N%) of the Northwest quarter (NWj4) the Southwest quarter (SW^) of the Northwest quarter (NWj4) 5 the Northwest quarter (NWj4) of the Southwest quarter (SW^), and the South half (S%) of the Southwest quarter (SWj?4)> all in Section Eighteen (18), Township Seventeen (17) North, Range Eleven (11) West, Bossier Parish, Louisiana, containing 240 acres, more or less.

“The lease stipulated a cash consideration, and additional bonus payable out of a part of the mineral produced from said lands (all of which has been paid) and also provided for the payment of the following royalties:

“‘(1) To deliver to the credit of Lessor, free of cost, into the pipe line to which Lessee may connect its wells, or at Lessor’s option to storage by the Lessor provided - the equal one-eighth (1/8) part *238 of all oil produced and saved from said leased premises.

“ ‘(2) To pay to Lessor at the rate of Two Hundred ($200.00) Dollars per year, payable quarterly, for each well producing gas (whether casinghead gas or otherwise) while such gas is not being utilized or sold off the premises, whether before pipeline connection or during subsequent suspensions of withdrawal, but during the time such gas shall be utilized, or sold off the premises such royalty shall cease, and instead, the lessor shall be paid one-half of one cent (1/2 of 10) per thousand cubic feet of such gas production, including gasoline, whether recovered by drips, absorption plant or otherwise, corrected to two pounds (2 lbs.) above atmospheric pressure.’

“The Triangle Drilling Company drilled a well producing crude oil and has paid a royalty thereon of 1/8 of the price received for the oil as sold, less 50 per barrel for transportation charges, while plaintiff is claiming in this suit a price some 170 to 200 per barrel as the posted price of like oil in the Sligo Field. The question here involved will be discussed secondly.

“The defendant Arkansas Louisiana Gas Company, in 1936 or 1937, drilled four wells on the leased lands which produced, and are producing, a large amount of gas and a water white fluid which is now commonly called ‘distillate’. The gas contained a little less than 1/2 gallon per thousand cubic feet.

“It is the plaintiff’s contention that this so called ‘distillate’ is ‘oil’ and should be accounted for as such under the royalty provision No. 1 of the lease, which grants unto plaintiff 1/8 of the oil produced and saved from the premises. It is defendant’s contention that the fluid is ‘gasoline’ and was accounted for under the second royalty provision, which provides a royalty of 1/20 per thousand cubic feet of such.gas production including gasoline, whether recovered by drips, absorption plant or otherwise, and which 1/20 per MFC had been regularly paid and accepted by plaintiff.

“We will consider the case from four angles, i. e., the nature and character of the fluid produced; the form of oil and gas leases in use at the time; the jurisprudence relating to royalty provisions of oil, and gas leases; the action of the parties, and then our conclusions on the sub j ect.

“We first make the statement that the remarks here made are not to be taken as a scientific discussion of oil and gas other than is necessary to determine a proper interpretation of the royalty provisions of a contract of lease between plaintiff and defendant. So far as we have been able to determine, there has been no oil and gas lease with a similar royalty provision as the one here involved that has been presented to the courts for a decision on the point here involved.

“Considered in a broad sense there are two minerals covered by the lease in question ; one is oil and the other is gas. They are distinct.

“Gas is defined as follows: ‘An aeriform fluid, having neither independent *240 shape nor volume, but tending to expand indefinitely.’

“Petroleum oil is defined: ‘An oil and inflammable liquid, almost colorless to black, consisting of complex mixture of hydrocarbons with small quantities of other materials, and existing in many cases in the upper strata of the earth.’

“These are found at varying depths under the ground, and in varying quantities.

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

Related

Undercofler v. Colonial Pipeline Co.
152 S.E.2d 768 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1966)
American Guaranty Co. v. Sunset Realty & Planting Co.
23 So. 2d 409 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1944)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 So. 2d 895, 200 La. 233, 1942 La. LEXIS 1193, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roy-v-arkansas-louisiana-gas-co-la-1942.