Bollinger v. Texas Co., 43263
Citation | 232 La. 637,95 So.2d 132 |
Decision Date | 01 April 1957 |
Docket Number | No. 43263,43263 |
Court | Supreme Court of Louisiana |
Parties | Donald BOLLINGER v. The TEXAS COMPANY et al. |
Richard S. Lake, New Orleans, Liskow & Lewis, Charles C. Gremillion, Lake Charles, for defendant-appellant.
Joseph M. Rault, Jr., Kalford K. Miazza, Terriberry, Young, Rault & Carroll, New Orleans, for plaintiffs-appellees.
This is an appeal from a judgment of the trial court ordering the cancellation of an oil, gas and mineral lease executed by the plaintiff, Donald Bollinger, as Lessor, and now held by the defendant, The Texas Company, as Lessee, affecting land situated in Lafourche Parish,1 directing the surrender to Donald Bollinger of Bollinger Unit 6 No. 1 Well, including all well equipment and appurtenances connected to the well and located on the premises, conditioned upon certain enumerated stipulations, and declaring certain overriding royalty interests, formerly outstanding and existing, null and void.
The suit is a companion case to that of Melancon v. Texas Company, 230 La. 593, 89 So.2d 135, and it was stipulated that various undisputed facts be incorporated into the present controversy.
The trial judge correctly stated the following facts:
'The plaintiff is the owner of a tract of land situated in the Parish of Lafourche on the left descending bank of Bayou Lafourche about twenty-six miles below the City of Thibodaux and comprising an approximate area of eighty arpents in Section 31, T--17--S R--19--E, and in Section 31, T--17--S, R--20--E. On December 30, 1946, he granted an oil, gas and mineral lease * * * to Joe W. Brown for a primary term of five years. Brown assigned the lease to Wylmer I. Pool by instrument dated October 16, 1950, * * * and by instrument dated November 13, 1950 * * * Pool assigned the same to The Texas Company, the defendant herein.
and 'it was formally abandoned on March 24, 1952.
'After failing in its attempt to negotiate a new lease or an extension of the old one, The Texas Company executed on April 16, 1952 (recorded April 1, 1952) la unit declaration covering a unitized area of forty acres comprising properties of plaintiff and adjoining owners, and on May 10, 1952 operations for the drilling of the Donald Bollinger Unit Six Number One Well were begun on the property of plaintiff, and the well was spudded in on May 19, 1952. This well was drilled to a total depth of 11,649 feet. It was tested on July 31, 1952 in Southcoast Number Two Sand, and was found to be productive of gas and distillate. It was then tested in Southcoast Number 3 Sand and completed in that sand on August 7, 1952, after the installation of complete production equipment. (Note: The quoted factual recitation is taken from the judgment rendered by the Supreme Court in the case of Melancon v. The Texas Co. et al * * *) After the production of gas and distillate, as aforestated, on various intermittent dates between September 8, and October 31, 1952, the well was temporarily shut in and the defendant Company forwarded on November 4, 1952, and received by plaintiff on November 6, 1952, its check for $70.84, representing five-eighths of the stipulated 'shut-in gas royalty' provided for in the lease. . Similar checks were forwarded December 3 and 22, 1952, January 22, 1953, and three others presumably in the months of February, March and April, 1953, which seven checks, after being held uncashed because Bollinger was dissatisfied with the existent situation, were deposited by Bollinger at the request of the maker in a special account in the Raceland Bank on May 8, 1953; whereafter four similar checks were deposited in the months of June, July, August and September, 1953.
"At conferences between the plaintiff and officials of The Texas Company in October, 1952, and March, 1953, on which occasions the Company was seeking to have the property owners, including the plaintiff, agree to a larger unit than the area of 40 acres stipulated in the lease contract, the plaintiff not only refused to agree to a revision of the unit but at those times showed dissatisfaction with the treatment he had received at the hands of the company. It was not until November 18, 1953, and after the plaintiff, through his attorney by letter dated November 10, 1953, formally notifying the defendant that because of various failures on its part to discharge its obligations as lessee, including the non-payment of accrued royalties, that the lease had been cancelled, and requested execution of a formal surrender of the lease in accordance with R.S. 30:102, that for the first time the amount due plaintiff from the sale of gas and distillate used or sold by The Texas Company for the period extending from July 31, 1952, through October, 1953, was tendered to plaintiff;2 but the checks were promptly returned. Royalties were tendered monthly thereafter, but were refused. This suit following on May 11, 1954.' . In addition to the two conferences, the plaintiff called at the office of the defendant in New Orleans, in January or February, 1953, and made inquiry about unpaid royalties.'
In the above mentioned letter of November 10, 1953, plaintiff's attorneys demanded that The Texas Company cancel and annul the lease herein involved because--
'* * * of your failure to meet your expressed and implied obligations under this lease, and under the law, particularly including your failure to pay royalty and/or rentals and/or delay rentals; your failure to properly develop the premises, and your failure to develop it to the best interest of the lessor; for failing to properly market the products of the gas-distillate well which you drilled; for failing to cure potestative conditions of the lease agreement; for insufficient, inadequate and non-serious considerations; for failing to take proper steps to offset drainage and/or to meet your express and implied covenants to protect the interests of the lessor and to protect the premises from drainage; for failing to develop the non-contiguous tracts; improper execution, for failing to produce in paying quantities; for failure to properly tender shut-in royalty; for violation of State law in failing to supply monthly reports in accordance with La.R.S. of 1950, 30:103 et seq.; for failing to adhere to the unitization terms of the lease contract; and other breaches and reasons; all in violation of the lease provisions and of applicable law.'
After receipt of the letter, The Texas Company attempted to pay production royalties, but they were unacceptable to plaintiff.
The present suit followed, and in ordering the cancellation of the mineral lease the trial judge relied on the Melancon case, supra. In that case, the judgment ordered the cancellation of a mineral lease held by The Texas Company on the lands of Arthur Melancon, unitized with the lands of plaintiff herein, on the ground that The Texas Company had failed to pay production royalties.
On this appeal the defendant contends that the trial court erred in not holding that the monthly payments under the 'shut-in' gas clause of the lease satisfied the obligation of the lessee to pay royalties on production when payments so made were more than the amounts actually due. It argues that the characterization of the payments as 'shut-in' did not prevent the application of such payments to production. In verbal argument before this Court, counsel for The Texas Company contended that it merely 'gave the payments the wrong name.'
Plaintiff urges that it is not the amount of the royalties which is determinative of the right of cancellation and forfeiture, but that it is the failure on the part of the Lessee to pay any amount of production royalties without a proper excuse for such non-payment.
In the Melancon case, supra, we held that the codal provisions which apply to ordinary leases are also applicable to mineral leases; and that in the case of royalty based on gas and oil production, it is the accepted custom to make such payments on a monthly basis,...
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