Sample v. Whitaker

132 So. 511, 171 La. 949, 1930 La. LEXIS 1993
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 5, 1930
DocketNo. 30850.
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 132 So. 511 (Sample v. Whitaker) 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
Sample v. Whitaker, 132 So. 511, 171 La. 949, 1930 La. LEXIS 1993 (La. 1930).

Opinion

*951 O’NIELL, C. J.

The .plaintiffs sued to be declared the owners of the mineral rights in a tract of land belonging to the defendant, Isaac Whitaker, and described as the S% of NE.% of section 5, township 13 north, range 13 west, containing SO acres. S. G. Sample, one of the plaintiffs, bought the land from O. H. P. Sample on the 29th of November, 1902, during the existence of the community of acquets and gains between S. G. Sample and his first wife, Mrs. Emma McCrory Sample. He sold the land to York Whitaker, Jr., on the 20th of November, 1911, with the following reservation, viz.:

“It is agreed and understood, however, that the vendor herein reserves all of the oil, gas or other minerals under the surface of said land,'with the right to go in and upon said land at any time, for the purpose of mining, drilling and> operating thereon for the purpose of exploiting for such minerals, and, in the event of the discovery of any such minerals, to mine and produce the same, with the necessary right, at any and all times, of ingress and egress for such purposes. And it is also agreed and understood between the parties hereto that the reservation of the minerals and the rights in connection therewith shall extend to the heirs, successors or assigns of the said vendor.”

The rights which where thus reserved, in the sale by S. G. Sample to York Whitaker, Jr., belonged to the marital community existing between S. G. Sample and Mrs. Emma McCrory Sample. She died, intestate, in September, 1918, leaving seven minor children, issue- of the marriage with S. G. Sample. Each child, therefore, inherited y4 interest in the mineral rights on Whitaker’s land. One of the children, S. G. Sample, Jr., died, intestate, in December, 1927; and, there being no descendant heirs, his father inherited of his y4 interest in the mineral rights, and the six surviving brothers and sisters each inherited % of % of the y4 interest in the mineral rights. Rev. Civ. Code, arts. 904 and' 911. S. G. Sample therefore claims in this suit % plus yB6, or 2%6, and each of the remaining six heirs of Mrs. Sample claims y14 plus % of % of y4, or s/112, of the mineral rights in the defendant’s land.

The plaintiffs in this suit are two of the daughters and a son of S. G. Sample, who are of age, and S. G. Sample individually and as tutor of the daughter and two sons who are yet minors.

On the 21st of November, 1911, York Whitaker, Jr.,, sold the land to Isaac Whitaker, without any reservation or mention of the mineral rights. Isaac Whitaker is therefore the principal defendant in the suit. He contends that the sale made by Sample to York Whitaker, Jr., was made in fulfillment of a contract of lease and promise to sell, dated the 30th of November, 1906, by which Sample was obliged to transfer to him a fee simple title to the land, on York Whitaker’s paying the rent at $180 per annum for five years, which rent was paid in full; and that York Whitaker, Jr., being an ignorant colored man, hardly able to read and write, and not represented by an attorney, was not informed or aware that the deed which he received from Sample contained a reservation of the mineral rights, and that he (York Whitaker, Jr.) was deceived and imposed upon in that respect. Isaac Whitaker pleaded aiso the prescription of ten years, liberandi causa, under articles 789, 3529, 3544 and 3546 of the Civil Code, by which servitudes or real rights are lost or extinguished by nonuse for ten years.

The district court sustained the plea of prescription and rejected the plaintiffs’ demand. They have appealed from the decision.

*953 When the case was called for argument in this court, the attorney for the defendants announced that he would file a plea of prescription acquirendi causa, under article 3478 of the Civil Code, as amended hy Act No. 64 of 1924, p. 91. The plea was not actually filed, however, until the case had been argued and submitted. The attorneys for appellants filed, at the same time, a protest against the filing of the plea of prescription after the case had been submitted, and, in the alternative, they pleaded that, if the court should hold that the plea of prescription was not filed too late, then that the Act Np. 64 of 1924 was unconstitutional because it undertook to change the law of prescription and to take effect immediately ; and, again in the alternative, they prayed that the case should be remanded for a hearing on the plea of unconstitutionality, if the court should hold that the plea of prescription was not filed too late and that the plea of unconstitutionality could not be considered originally by this court.

The plea of prescription acquirendi causa is the most important defense to the suit, for, if it was not filed too late, and is well founded, it will not be necessary to decide whether the term of prescription liberandi causa was suspended during the minority of the heirs of the deceased Mrs. Sample, or, if so, whether the effect was to suspend the running of prescription as to S. G. Sample, or to consider the other defense to the suit. The facts disclosed by the record, as far as they go, sustain the plea of prescription acquirendi causa. The sale of the property to the defendant Isaac Whitaker was made eighteen years before this suit was filed. It was alleged in the plaintiff’s petition that Isaac Whitaker was in actual or physical possession of the property. It was proven on the trial that he had been residing on the property for twenty-four years; and it was stated by counsel for plaintiffs, in the examination of the' witnesses in this ease, that Isaac Whitaker was residing on the property at the time of the trial. It was also admitted that there had not been any attempt to drill for oil or gas or other minerals on the land until the year 1930; and this suit was filed on the 6th of May, 1930.

The first question to be considered, therefore, is whether we should consider the plea of prescription acquirendi causa as being filed in time, and remand the case for the hearing of further evidence on the subject, and for a consideration of the plea that Act No. 64 of 1924, which declares that the prescription of ten years, acquirendi causa, shall not be interrupted in favor of any minor heir of a person against whom it has begun to run, is unconstitutional.

Article 902 of the Code of Practice provides:

“Although in general parties before the Supreme Court are not allowed to plead other matters than those which were before the inferior court, nevertheless it may depart from this rule, when the exception taken is one of those which may be pleaded at any period of a cause, and the proof of it appears by the mere examination of the record.

“The prescription may be pleaded before the Supreme Court when the proof of it appears on the face of the proceeding in the lower court. But the party to whom it is opposed shall have the privilege of demanding •that the cause be remanded for trial upon that plea.”

The plaintiffs cite the case of O’Hara v. City of New Orleans, 30 La. Ann. 152, and State ex rel. Hundley v. City of Alexandria, 164 La. 624, 114 So. 491, in support of their argument that a plea of prescription or other peremptory exception cannot be filed in the appellate court after the case has been submitted.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
132 So. 511, 171 La. 949, 1930 La. LEXIS 1993, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sample-v-whitaker-la-1930.