Union Producing Co. v. Schneider

131 So. 2d 133, 16 Oil & Gas Rep. 374, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1178
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 1, 1961
DocketNo. 9521
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 131 So. 2d 133 (Union Producing Co. v. Schneider) 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
Union Producing Co. v. Schneider, 131 So. 2d 133, 16 Oil & Gas Rep. 374, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1178 (La. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

GLADNEY, Judge.

Union Producing Company instituted this concursus proceeding on April 29, 1958, to have judicially determined the ownership of a Vio mineral interest in the South Half of Southwest Quarter of Section 20, Township 17 North, Range 11 West, Bossier Parish, Louisiana, and a %o of y% royalty interest in the production from the unit gas well for said Southwest Quarter of Section 20. Union, the lessee and operator, deposited in the registry of the lower court the royalty accrued to said %o mineral interest at the time of the filing of this suit, and has continued to deposit additional royalty as it has accrued to said interest. Joined by Union as parties having or claiming an interest thereto were Melvin F. Johnson, F. R. Schneider, W. G. Ray, B. M. Nowery, and the nine heirs of Ed Lemons.

The 80 acre tract, comprising the S of SW °f Section 20 involved herein, was acquired by Henry Lemons and Pennie Pope Lemons prior to 1880 through a patent from the United States Government. Henry Lemons died about 1882 and Pennie Lemons died in 1908. They were survived by the following five children as issue of their marriage: Henry W., Burton, Mary [135]*135Jane, Ed and Charity. In addition, Pennie Lemons left a child, Jim Sinney, who was apparently horn to her prior to her marriage to Henry Lemons. Charity Lemons died intestate in 1928 leaving no descendants. Mary Jane Lemons married Will Barber and died intestate leaving one child, James Barber. Ed Lemons died intestate in 1916 and left nine children. The succession of Henry and Pennie Lemons was not opened until May of 1937, when an ex parte judgment was obtained on behalf of Jim Sinney decreeing ownership of the 80 acres in the following proportions: Henry W. Lemons, Burton Lemons, and James Barber as owners of an undivided ^oths interest each; the nine heirs of Ed Lemons as owners of an undivided %oths interest each; and Jim Sinney as owner of an %oths undivided interest. Also in may of 1937 an instrument of compromise, quoted hereinafter, was prepared by Jim Sinney’s attorney wherein the parties’ ownership of the tract in the above proportions was purportedly conveyed and recognized. The instrument was not executed by the nine Ed Lemons heirs, however.

In 1935 and 1936, being prior to the succession judgment and compromise agreement, Burton Lemons, Henry W. Lemons, and James Barber executed mineral sales totaling % of the minerals under the 80 acre tract to various parties. A summary of said mineral sales is as follows:

(1) By deed dated July 19, 1935, Burton Lemons, H. W. Lemons, and James Barber sold one-half of the minerals under the 80 acres to H. C. Miller.
(a)Miller subsequently sold one-fortieth of the minerals under the tract to J. S. Slack, Trustee, and three-eightieths of the minerals under said tract to C. B. Stroud, Trustee.
(2) By separate deeds dated January 11, 1936, Henry Lemons and Burton Lemons each conveyed one-sixteenth of the minerals (total one-eighth) to P. L. McDade.
(a) McDade subsequently sold said one-eighth of the minerals to F. R. Schneider.
(b) Schneider then sold one-sixty-fourth of the minerals to Val Irion who in turn conveyed said %i mineral interest to A. C. Glassell, Jr.
(c) Mr. Schneider has died and Mrs. Lucille Talley Schneider, Mrs. Marian Schneider Baldwin, Charles Raymond Schneider and Stephen W. Schneider have been substituted for him as parties defendant herein.
(3)By deed dated October 13, 1936, Henry W. Lemons, Burton Lemons, and James Barber conveyed unto W. G. Ray one-eighth of the minerals under the entire tract;
(a) Ray subsequently conveyed one-sixteenth of the minerals to B. M. Nowery;
(b) Nowery subsequently conveyed one-thirty-second of the minerals to J. F. Van Cleve ;
(c) Mr. Ray has died and Mrs. Lucie Leveque Ray and Mrs. Thais E.' Ray Soes have been substituted for him as parties defendant herein;
(d) Mr. Nowery has died and James Richard Nowery, John Edward Now-ery, and Byron Milton Nowery, Jr., have been substituted for him as parties defendant herein.

On May 18, 1937, Jim Sinney conveyed a %o fee interest, being 1/2 of the Yio interest allocated to him in the compromise agreement and succession judgment, to his attorney, Melvin Johnson. His remaining interest was conveyed to William H. Brown on March 3, 1938, and it too was subsequently acquired by Johnson from Brown on February 2, 1953. The purported fee conveyances from Sinney admittedly were subject to the outstanding mineral sales which had been executed in 1935 and 1936, as noted above. Although there were no drilling operations conducted [136]*136on the subject premises until 1949, oil and gas leases dated August 1, 1944, which were jointly executed by the various mineral owners as well as Henry W. Lemons, Burton Lemons, and James Barber, and which were ratified by Johnson and Brown in 1953, purported to effect an acknowledgment of, and an interruption of the running of prescription against such mineral servitudes.

Johnson answered the concursus petition by asserting ownership of an undivided Yio fee interest in the 80 acre tract predicated upon the succession judgment and compromise agreement in favor of Sinney and the several deeds by which he, Johnson, acquired Sinney’s interest. Johnson further averred that the various mineral servitudes created in 1935 and 1936 had prescribed inasmuch as no operations were conducted on the premises until 1949, and that he was therefore entitled to be recognized as owner of a V20 interest in Ys oí all mineral production from the unit well. The other joined claimants, the Ed Lemons heirs and the mineral owners, Schneider, Ray and Nowery, answered and denied the validity of both the succession judgment and the compromise agreement. Johnson filed pleas of acquisitive and liberative prescription. He also interposed an exception of no cause or right of action predicated on the contention that the concursus was improperly provoked.

After trial on the merits, the lower court rendered judgment rejecting Johnson’s claims to a share of the fund deposited, and in written reasons assigned thereto, concluded: that Jim Sinney was an illegitimate child and not an heir; that, consequently, the ex parte succession judgment was an absolute nullity; that the evidence failed to establish the possession and good faith requisite to acquisitive prescription; and that the plea of liberative prescription was likewise unsupported by evidence.

While the case was pending upon application for rehearing or new trial, Johnson filed a motion of nonjoinder of parties and a plea of prescription of ten years, LSA-C.C. Art. 2221, against any attack or claim of nullity against the compromise agreement. The motion of nonjoinder was dismissed as not timely filed in limine, and the plea of prescription and motion for rehearing were likewise overruled.

On appeal to this court Johnson contends the lower court erred in: not sustaining the exception of no cause or right of action for concursus; not concluding that Johnson owned by regular transfer from Henry W. Lemons, Burton Lemons, and James Barber, an undivided V10

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Related

Willett v. Price
515 So. 2d 477 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)
Lake, Inc. v. Brown
217 So. 2d 212 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1968)
Johnson v. Lemons
157 So. 2d 752 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1963)
Estate of Helis v. Hoth
150 So. 2d 106 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1963)

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Bluebook (online)
131 So. 2d 133, 16 Oil & Gas Rep. 374, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/union-producing-co-v-schneider-lactapp-1961.