Roxana Petroleum Corporation v. Colquitt

• Decision Date: 16 February 1929
• Docket Number: 204.,No. 203,203
• Citation: 34 F.2d 470
• Parties: ROXANA PETROLEUM CORPORATION v. COLQUITT et al. DOUGLAS OIL CO. v. SAME.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Panama Canal Zone

34 F.2d 470 (1929)

ROXANA PETROLEUM CORPORATION v. COLQUITT et al.

DOUGLAS OIL CO. v. SAME.

Nos. 203, 204.

District Court, W. D. Texas, El Paso Division.

February 16, 1929.

Koerner, Fahey & Young, of St. Louis, Mo., for complainant Roxana Petroleum Corporation.

O'Connor, Holden & Cobb, of Tulsa, Okl., for complainant Douglas Oil Company.

W. A. Wright, of San Angelo, Tex., for complainants.

James Cornell and J. F. Sutton, both of San Angelo, Tex., L. W. Elliott, of Sonora, Tex, and Belcher & Montague, of Del Rio, Tex., for defendants.

BOYNTON, District Judge.

In these cases the complainants bring suit in equity in their nature actions to remove cloud from title and to quiet title, praying for equitable relief; separate suits being filed, as originally brought by the complainants at the Pecos division of the Western district of Texas, and later being transferred to the El Paso division of the court for disposition; in their amended bills of complaint filed by complainants herein, alleging diversity of citizenship, the Roxana Petroleum Corporation as incorporated under the laws of the state of Virginia, and the Douglas Oil Company as incorporated under the laws of Oklahoma, and the defendants as residents of the state of Texas, and the lands in question as located in Pecos county, which is within the Pecos division of the United States court for the Western district of Texas; the defendants named being W. H. Colquitt, receiver, as receiver, Jerry Monroe, Henry Monroe, and other Monroe children, and also Mrs. M. A. Smith and husband, W. A. Smith.

Complainants allege execution by defendant Mrs. M. A. Smith and husband, W. A. Smith, of various oil and gas leases on various tracts of land located in Pecos county, Tex., set forth and described in complainants' bills, respectively, for a valuable consideration; and that for a valuable consideration such oil and gas leases on said tracts of land were duly assigned and transferred by various assignees named, holding under Mrs. M. A. Smith, to the complainants, and the titles to such leases acquired, owned, and held by the Roxana Petroleum Corporation as in its bill recited, and certain royalty interests by the Douglas Oil Company as in its bill set forth and described; that complainants are in possession under said leases and said royalty rights and interests, and have expended large sums of money in acquiring said leases and royalty assignments and in the development and operation of such lands, in the erection of structures and rentals paid, and in the manner and respect as set forth in complainants' bills, respectively.

It is further alleged that on the 15th day of September, 1927, in cause No. 1775, entitled M. A. Smith et ux. v. Henry Monroe, then and now pending in the district court of Pecos county, Tex., the defendant herein, Jerry Monroe, purporting to act for and on behalf of and as next friend of his mother, Mrs. Mattie A. Monroe, being the defendant Mrs. M. A. Smith, named in these actions herein as defendant, filed petition in intervention in said cause in the district court of Pecos county, Tex., complaining of the defendant W. A. Smith; and alleging, in substance, that Mrs. M. A. Smith entered into a marriage relation with W. A. Smith on the date as therein specified, to wit, July 29, 1917, and that at the time of entering into such marriage relation the said Mrs. M. A. Smith was of unsound mind, legally incompetent to comprehend the nature and effect of such status; and praying that such marriage relation should be annulled for such reason; further alleging, in said plea in intervention filed in cause No. 1775, that Mrs. M. A. Smith was incompetent to enter into any legal contract, to execute leases, transfers, deeds, etc., during all of the period of time covering the period during which the oil leases were entered into and executed by Mrs. M. A. Smith and husband, W. A. Smith, under which complainant Roxana Petroleum Corporation claims title, and the Douglas Oil Company to have acquired their royalty interests, as in their said bills alleged; and other and further allegations as to the incompetency of Mrs. M. A. Smith, that she was of unsound mind and legally incompetent to act, did not possess the mental capacity to understand the nature, character, and effect of instruments executed by her during the period of time referred to, and that she had continued to be of unsound mind and legally incompetent to act, and was so at the time of the filing of said petition in intervention.

It is further alleged in said petition in intervention filed by the defendant Jerry Monroe in said cause 1775, in the district court of Pecos county, Tex., that applicant Jerry Monroe, is a son of the said Mrs. Mattie A. Monroe, is much devoted to her, is acting with the knowledge and consent of her other children, seven in number, and, while at one time prior to the pretended marriage the said Mattie A. Monroe executed a will by the terms of which she left her property to her children, share and share alike, and while her mental condition is not such as would enable her to make another will which might be probated, and while her children aforesaid would succeed to her property, share and share alike, and while the said Jerry Monroe has a financial and material interest as shown by the facts, yet he is prompted in asking to intervene in said cause by his love and devotion to his mother and his desire to have the property placed in the hands of some one who would manage it prudently, economically, and in a businesslike way, and to prevent the expending and squandering of the entire estate of his mother; and in said application and petition praying for the appointment by the court of a receiver to take control of all of the properties and estate of Mrs. M. A. Smith.

Complainants further allege in their pleadings that on September 19, 1927, lis pendens notice was filed in the lis pendens record of Pecos county, Tex., by James Cornell, as attorney for intervener, Jerry Monroe, of the pendency of said cause 1775 in the district court of Pecos county, Tex., and of the filing of the petition in intervention therein by Jerry Monroe, and that by virtue thereof title was asserted to all of the lands, the various sections of land embraced in what is known and designated as the "Monroe Ranch," including the tracts of land to which the Roxana Petroleum Corporation asserts claim under oil and gas leases, as in its bill of complaint alleged, and those tracts of land in which the Douglas Oil Company asserts claim to certain royalty interests in the minerals contained in said land.

Complainants in their said bills of complaint further allege that the receiver, W. H. Colquitt, has brought numerous suits in the district court of Pecos county, Tex., following his appointment as receiver in said cause 1775, bringing said suits as such receiver and also as next friend of Mrs. M. A. Smith, to set aside and hold for naught all oil and gas leases on the tracts of land given, as relating to the tracts of land in the various sections embraced in what is designated as the "Monroe Ranch."

Complainants, herein, allege that Mrs. M. A. Smith was competent, was of sound mind, and legally competent to act and appreciated the nature, character, and effect of the instruments and contracts entered into by her, under and by virtue of which complainants assert ownership of the mineral rights as in their bills set forth; and that the filing of said plea of intervention in said cause 1775, in the district court of Pecos county, Tex., lis pendens notice, and, as further set up in the supplemental bill filed by the complainant Roxana Petroleum Corporation, the bringing of the several suits by the receiver and as next friend of Mrs. M. A. Smith, filed in the district court of Pecos county, Tex., as in complainants' bills alleged, and the execution of certain powers of attorney from Jerry Monroe, Henry Monroe, and other Monroe children, to James Cornell, and the recording of same in Pecos county, Tex., in the deed records of Pecos county, Tex., has created a cloud, or clouds, on the rights, titles, equities, privileges, and properties of complainants, for which complainants pray for relief herein for removal of such clouds as have been so cast on the title of complainants, and to restrain the casting of clouds upon their said title, and the interference with their use and enjoyment of the properties and rights which they are entitled to under and by virtue of the oil leases and assignments of royalty rights as alleged by them, and quieted in their title to same.

The defendants filed motion to dismiss complainants' bills herein respectively, on the ground of want of equity in complainants to maintain equitable cause of action as in their bills alleged, which matter was presented to the court at length, and overruled. Following such action of the court in overruling of the motion to dismiss, answers were filed by the defendants herein, by the defendants Mrs. M. A. Smith and husband, W. A. Smith, and joint answers filed on behalf of the defendants Jerry Monroe, Henry Monroe, and other Monroe children named as defendants herein, and separate answers on the part of, or by, the defendant W. H. Colquitt as receiver.

The defendants Jerry Monroe, Henry Monroe, and others, in their answer and pleadings filed herein, deny having made assertions as alleged in complainants' bills as made in bad faith, alleging and averring that every statement made by them in the petition in intervention by Jerry Monroe and other defendants, made in said pleadings in cause No. 1775 or otherwise, statements made by them with reference to unsoundness of mind of Mrs. M. A. Smith, and her legal incapacity to understand the nature, character, and effect of instruments executed by her, that such statements were made by the defendants in good faith, and that they believed such statements to be true, and that the condition of bodily...