California Co. v. Price

• Decision Date: 14 December 1953
• Docket Number: No. 41130,41130
• Citation: 74 So.2d 1,225 La. 706
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: CALIFORNIA CO. v. PRICE et al.

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74 So.2d 1 225 La. 706 CALIFORNIA CO.
v.
PRICE et al. No. 41130. Supreme Court of Louisiana. Dec. 14, 1953.
On Rehearing May 31, 1954.

[225 La. * 1 710]

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Liskow & Lewis, Lake Charles, Doyle, Smith & Doyle, New Orleans, for defendants-appellants.

Fred S. LeBlanc, Atty. Gen., James R. Fuller, Dixon Carroll, Sp. Asst. Attys. Gen., John L. Madden, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendants-appellees.

HAMITER, Justice.

The California Company, a corporation organized in the State of California and qualified to do business in Louisiana, instituted this concursus proceeding to determine the ownership of funds representing accumulated oil royalties from eight producing wells drilled in the bed of Grand Bay in Plaquemines Parish and located in Sections 17, 19, 20 and 22, Township 19 South, Range 18 East.

Grand Bay is a body of salt water, navigable in 1812 and also presently, lying east of the Mississippi River at or near the southern extremity of Breton Sound and connecting with the Gulf of Mexico. The State of Louisiana, by virtue of its inherent sovereignty and in view of the navigable[225 La. 711] character of such Bay, acquired title to the bed thereof when admitted to the union on an equal footing with the thirteen original states.

Under date of November 4, 1874, in consideration of the prior payment to it of the sum of $1,695.48, the State issued patent No. 1965 which recited a grant and sale to John Beckwith of certain described lands in Township 19 South, Range 18 East, approximately a total of 6,439.29 acres, including the sections above named in which the bed of Grand Bay lies. The patent was signed by the Governor and the Registrar,

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and it was recorded in the State Land Office.

From the State of Louisiana, represented by the Mineral Board, and also from the heirs and successors of John Beckwith, the California Company obtained separate mineral leases, pursuant to which the wells in question were drilled and production obtained. And in this proceeding it has impleaded those adverse claimants, they being referred to hereinafter as 'State' and 'Beckwith group', respectively.

The principal contention of the State is that the bed of Grand Bay (a navigable arm of the sea when Louisiana was admitted into the union in 1812 and then owned by it by virtue of its inherent sovereignty, all as above shown) is insusceptible of private ownership and has never been disposed of validly.

Alternatively, the State urges a derivative title thereto predicated on an adjudication[225 La. 712] to it in 1883 for unpaid taxes of 1881 and 1882 under an assessment in the name of John Beckwith. Also, in the alternative, the State pleads several prescriptions of 10 and 30 years.

Those in the Beckwith group deraign title from and claim under the mentioned patent No. 1965, issued by the State in 1874 to John Beckwith, they admitting, however, that their ownership of the bed of Grand Bay under the patent has been and is now subject to public rights of commerce, navigation and fisheries. Additionally, they specially plead the prescription of six years under Act No. 62 of 1912, LSA-R.S. 9:5661, averring that it has foreclosed any rights the State previously had to question the validity of the Beckwith patent.

Regarding the State's first alternative contention they assert that the tax deed did not describe and, therefore, did not include the land in dispute; and that the purported tax sale was invalid and has been cancelled by authorized State officials. The other alternative claims of prescription made by the State are also contested.

Without passing upon any of the alternative pleas of the State the district court, following the trial, rendered a judgment declaring that claimant to be the owner of the royalties due and to become due from the eight producing oil wells located in the bed of Grand Bay, and dismissing the claims of the Beckwith group.

[225 La. 713] The Beckwith group appealed. The State has answered the appeal, asserting that the judgment is correct for the written reasons assigned by the district court, and reasserting additionally all other contentions and pleas made by it.

In reaching his conclusion the district judge, to quote from his assigned written reasons, said in part:

'Prior to the enactment of the Louisiana Constitution of 1921, Article IV, Section 2, the Legislature of Louisiana was not prohibited from alienating the beds of arms of the sea. However, the public policy of this State, as declared by the Legislature, has always been to place sea-bottoms within that class of things which are to be considered insusceptible of private ownership and therefore inalienable by the State of Louisiana. * * *

* * *

* * *

'Under the provisions of Act 62 of 1912 [LSA-]R.S. 9:5661, proceedings by the State of Louisiana to annul patents issued by the State must be brought within six years of the issuance of the patent, or, in the case of patents issued prior to 1912, within six years of the passage of Act 62. The instant case does not involve the validity of the patent issued John Beckwith in 1874 but rather, the extent of the land, conveyed by the patent. The patent by its terms covers a large quantity of Swamp and marsh land, and according to the acreage described would include the bed of Grand Bay. As to the swamp and marsh [225 La. 714] lands the patent stands. However, the patent cannot be said to have conveyed property that was insusceptible of private ownership. There is nothing in Act 62 of 1912 which would convert things which are insusceptible of private ownership into

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property that is alienable by the State. If Act 62 does so, it is only by an inference that this Court does not find in the Statute. * * *'

Contrary to the initial argument of the State, and as was correctly concluded by the trial judge, patent No. 1965 issued to John Beckwith in 1874 did describe, and it purported to convey, the bed of Grand Bay. The descriptions of the property sought to be transferred, as the patent recites, were 'according to the official plat of the survey of said lands in the State Land Office'; and Grand Bay, as portrayed and delineated by sections on such plat, conformed with and was included in those descriptions. That being true, it is not exactly correct to say that the instant case does not involve the validity of the patent but, rather, it presents the extent of the land conveyed by the patent.

The members of the Beckwith group concede that the State at one time might have successfully urged the invalidity of the assailed patent, the Governor and Register of the State Land Office (the signing officials in 1874) not having had any specific authorization from the Legislature to execute the instrument. But they show that prior to 1921 there was no constitutional [225 La. 715] prohibition respecting an alienation by the State of the bed of a body of navigable water, including Grand Bay; and they contend that, because of the State's inaction, any such right to attack the patent has been barred by the prescription of six years as established by the provisions of Act 62 of 1912, Section 1 of which states:

'* * * That all suits or proceedings of the State of Louisiana, private corporations, partnerships or persons to vacate and annual any patent issued by the State of Louisiana, duly signed by the Governor of the State and the Register of the State Land Office, and of record in the State Land Office, or any transfer of property by any sub-division of the State, shall be brought only within six years of the issuance of patent, provided, that suits to annual patents previously issued shall be brought within six years from the passage of this Act.'

The State, countering, insists that such statute is not applicable here. In this connection it argues first that the bed of Grand Bay is classed as 'sea shore' which, according to the Louisiana Statutes Annotated-Civil Code, Articles 450 and 482, constitutes 'common property' available to all persons and insusceptible of private ownership. At the same time it concedes (both in brief and in oral presentation of the case), however, that prior to 1921 the Legislature had the power to change the mentioned codal or legislative declarations and to make such property alienable to individuals. [225 La. 716] In effect its position, therefore, is that the property would have been susceptible of private ownership had it not been for the mentioned codal articles; and that because of the prohibition therein contained the bed of Grand Bay was inalienable and the prescriptive statute relied on has no application.

In State v. Richardson, 140 La. 329, 72 So. 984, 986, which presented the question of whether the property there in dispute was a part of the bed of Red River (a navigable stream), this court said: 'It can hardly be denied that anything which constitutes property, or an interest in property, and which possesses any value, or conceivable value, for any purpose whatever, is susceptible of private ownership, unless there be some law to the contrary. The 'law to the contrary,' in this instance, is said to be that which declares that the beds of navigable rivers are 'public,' and hence not susceptible of private ownership. * * *' The "law to the contrary" in the present litigation, as before shown, is said to be the provisions of LSA-Civil Code, Articles 450 and 482. It is not at all certain that they provide the prohibition here contended for, since the court made no reference to them in State v. Bayou Johnson Oyster Co., Limited, 130 La. 604, 58 So. 405, 410, which involved a dispute over similar tidewater bottoms, when it commented: 'It may be, and probably is, true that there is no legal impediment in the way of the state's alienating such property[225 La. 717] in favor of particular individuals or corporations, save in so far as such alienations

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might conflict with the power vested in Congress to regulate interstate and foreign commerce; * * *.'

But...