Ates v. Yellow Pine Land Co.

• Decision Date: 25 February 1975
• Docket Number: Nos. U--114,U--120,s. U--114
• Citation: 310 So.2d 772
• Parties: Vinson ATES and Minnie Ates, husband and wife, Appellants, v. YELLOW PINE LAND COMPANY, its trustees or successors, et al., Appellees. HUMBLE OIL & REFINING COMPANY and St. Regis Paper Company, Inc., Appellants, v. Vinson ATES et ux., Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 772

310 So.2d 772

Vinson ATES and Minnie Ates, husband and wife, Appellants, v. YELLOW PINE LAND COMPANY, its trustees or successors, et al., Appellees.

HUMBLE OIL & REFINING COMPANY and St. Regis Paper Company, Inc., Appellants, v. Vinson ATES et ux., Appellees.

Nos. U--114, U--120.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

Feb. 25, 1975.

Rehearing Denied April 10, 1975.

Allen W. Lindsay of Lindsay & Lindsay, Milton, Philip D. Beall and Roderic G. Magie of Levin, Warfield, Middlebrooks, Graff, Mabie, Rosenbloum & Magie, Pensacola, for Vinson and Minnie Ates.

G. Thomas Smith, Jeffrey T. Sauer, Pensacola, and Thomas A. Clark of Carlton, Fields, Ward, Emmanuel, Smith & Cutler, Tampa, for Humble Oil & Refining Co., Yellow Pine Land Co. and others.

BOYER, Acting Chief Judge.

We here consider two consolidated appeals from a final judgment quieting title to certain interests in 20 acres of land.

Title to the 20 acres is deraigned without remarkable significance into Yellow Pine Land Company by deed dated September 17, 1928. On April 18, 1931 Yellow Pine Land Company executed a deed to Escambia Land and Manufacturing Company which deed is claimed to have been intended to convey the subject 20 acres and other lands; but the subject 20 acres which is properly described as the northwest section 11, township 4 north, range 29 west section 11, township 4 north, range 2. west was erroneously described as the Northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of said section, township and range. On October 1, 1936 Escambia Land and Manufacturing Company conveyed the subject property by correct description to the Pace Company. By successive mesne conveyances title became vested on December 11, 1940 in Florida Pulp and Paper Company.

On September 1, 1941 Vinson Ates obtained a tax deed from the State of Florida purporting to convey to him the subject 20 acres, which deed was recorded on September 6, 1941. Ates paid the taxes on the property for the tax years 1941 through 1972.

On June 14, 1946 Florida Pulp and Paper Company executed a mineral deed to Florida Oil & Gas Company purporting to convey an undivided one-half interest 'in and to all clays, coals, oil, metal, gases and mineral products' in the subject land and other lands. It is apparent that that conveyance was intended to sever the subsurface mineral interest and title thereto from the surface ownership.

St. Regis Paper Company is the successor in interest through absorption by merger of Florida Pulp and Paper Company and thereby claims ownership of the surface of the subject property and an undivided one-half interest in the subsurface mineral interests. Humble Oil & Refining Company claims ownership of the remaining undivided one-half interest in the subsurface minerals by virtue of a mineral deed from Florida Oil & Gas Company dated April 1, 1971 and various oil leases to Humble Oil & Refining Company from both St. Regis Paper Company and Florida Oil & Gas Company dated March 26, 1969.

Vinson Ates claims ownership of the surface and subsurface by virtue of the tax deed above referred to.

Suit to quiet title was commenced by Vinson Ates and Minnie Ates, his wife, against St. Regis Pulp and Paper Company, Humble Oil & Refining Company and other defendants seeking to quiet title to the subject 20 acres.

Final judgment was entered by the trial judge, sitting as a finder of the facts, wherein he found that Ates went into actual possession on September 1, 1941 claiming under the above mentioned tax deed, which he found to constitute color of title, though defective, and that Ates continued in possession under color of title 'in obedience to the requirements of Section 95.17(3) Florida Statutes.' He further found that Ates' adverse possession ripened into fee simple title except as to the claim of Humble Oil & Refining Company to an undivided one-half interest in the subsurface oil, gas and minerals as to the east half of the subject property; reciting that 'It is the opinion of this court that adverse possession of the land surface alone does not destroy vested title to severed oil, gas and other minerals in and under such surface.'

Based on those findings the learned trial judge found Vinson Ates to be vested with the fee simple title to all of the subject property except an undivided one-half interest From that final judgment Vinson Ates and Minnie Ates, his wife, plaintiffs in the trial court, took timely appeal claiming that the trial judge erred in finding that Humble Oil & Refining Company had a severed interest in any part of the subsurface rights. Humble Oil & Refining Company and St. Regis Paper Company also took timely appeal, Humble claiming that the trial judge erred in failing to find it the owner of an undivided one-half interest in all subsurface oil, gas and other mineral rights, and St. Regis Paper Company claiming that the trial judge erred in failing to find it to be the owner of the surface and an undivided one-half interest in the subsurface. As above noted, those appeals were consolidated and are both resolved in this opinion.

in and to the oil, gas and other minerals in the east half of the subject property, which interest he found and declared to be vested in fee simple in Humble Oil & Refining Company.

It is settled law that a tax deed, whether valid or invalid, is color of title under Florida Statutes 95.16 and 95.17. (See 1 Fla.Jur., Adverse Possession, § 8 and the many cases there cited)

The learned trial judge, as a finder of the facts, construing the evidence before him, found that Ates, plaintiff in the trial court, went into actual possession under color of title and that such possession was such as to ripen into fee simple title under Florida Statute 95.17(3). Although the evidence was scanty we cannot say that as a matter of law the trial judge erred in so finding and holding. We, as an appellate court, may not substitute our judgment as to the facts for that of the trial judge. (See Merritt v. Williams, Fla.App.1st 1974, 295 So.2d 310; Parker v. State, Fla.App.1st 1974, 295 So.2d 312; and Exchange Bank of St. Augustine v. Florida Nat. Bank, Sup.Ct.Fla.1974, 292 So.2d 361)

We therefore affirm that portion of the final judgment finding in favor of the plaintiffs, Ates.

We next consider that portion of the final judgment wherein Humble Oil & Refining Company was declared to be vested with fee simple title to an undivided one-half interest in and to the oil, gas and other minerals under the easterly one half of the subject property. It is apparent from the recitations in the final judgment that the trial judge determined that the conveyance from Florida Pulp and Paper Company to Florida Oil & Gas Company on June 14, 1946, After Ates went into possession under his tax deed, was sufficient to convey and sever an undivided one-half interest in the subsurface oil, gas and other minerals under the east one half of the subject 20 acres, being that portion of the subject 20 acres...