Erickson v. Morrison

• Decision Date: 16 March 2021
• Docket Number: No. 2020-0244,2020-0244
• Citation: 176 N.E.3d 1,165 Ohio St.3d 76
• Parties: ERICKSON et al., Appellants, v. MORRISON et al., Appellees.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

165 Ohio St.3d 76

176 N.E.3d 1

ERICKSON et al., Appellants,

v.MORRISON et al., Appellees.

No. 2020-0244

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted January 13, 2021

Decided March 16, 2021.

Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter Co., L.P.A., John P. Brody, William J. Levendusky, and Jane K. Gleaves, Columbus, for appellants.

Krugliak, Wilkins, Griffiths & Dougherty Co., L.P.A., Gregory W. Watts, and Matthew W. Onest, Canton, for appellees.

Theisen Brock, L.P.A., Daniel P. Corcoran, Marietta, and Kristopher O. Justice, urging affirmance for amici curiae, Doris Craig, Paul Craig, Eleanor Craig, Nina Ice, Terry Ice, Sheila Stollar, Roger Stollar, Lisa Meyer, Kenneth Meyer Jr., Helen Craig, Evelyn Craig, Carissa R. Baker, and Corey A. Stollar.

Kennedy, J. {¶ 1} This discretionary appeal from a judgment of the Fifth District Court of Appeals presents the question whether a reference to a reservation of mineral rights in a surface landowner's root of title and in subsequently recorded title transactions is sufficiently specific to preserve the reservation of the mineral rights under Ohio's Marketable Title Act, R.C. 5301.47 et seq., when the reference does not name the record owner of those rights.

{¶ 2} Ohio's Marketable Title Act provides that an unbroken chain of title to land for a period of 40 years establishes marketable record title to the land, which generally extinguishes property interests that predate the landowner's root of title. R.C. 5301.47(A) and 5301.48. However, R.C. 5301.49(A) states that marketable record title is subject to all "interests and defects" inherent in the muniments of the chain of title, with the exception that a "general reference * * * to easements, use restrictions, or other interests created prior to the root of title" is not sufficient to preserve such an interest from being extinguished unless the general reference also includes "specific identification" of the recorded title transaction that created the interest.

{¶ 3} Nothing in R.C. 5301.49(A) provides that a reference to an interest in the muniments of title is a general reference that is insufficient to preserve the interest when it fails to include the interest owner's name. And in this case, the muniments of title contain a reference to a specific, identifiable reservation of mineral rights that can be determined through a reasonable title search. In contrast to general language stating that a conveyance is subject to any reservations that may—or may not—exist, the reservation in this case is recited throughout the chain of title using the same language as that used in the recorded title transaction that created the reservation. For these reasons, the reservation of mineral rights in this case is preserved by R.C. 5301.49(A).

{¶ 4} We therefore reverse the judgment of the Fifth District and reinstate the trial court's judgment.

Facts and Procedural History

{¶ 5} In February 1926, James T. and Rose L. Logan conveyed the surface rights to approximately 139 acres of land in Guernsey County to Edward and Alta Riggs. The Logans retained the mineral rights to the land's coal, oil, and gas through the following language in the deed: "Excepting and reserving therefrom all coal, gas, and oil with the right of said first parties, their heirs and assigns, at any time to drill and operate for oil and gas and to mine all coal." In February 1941, James T. Logan, then a widower, transferred the mineral rights to C.L. Ogle through execution of a deed specifically referring to the 1926 transaction. According to affidavits attached to their complaint, Sally A. Tonning (now deceased) and appellants, W. Randall and Kathleen Erickson, are Ogle's heirs.

{¶ 6} Between 1926 and 1975, the surface rights to the land were transferred five times through recorded instruments, with each instrument reciting the same "excepting and reserving" language from the 1926 deed (but omitting the word "said" before the term "first parties" on four of the instruments).

{¶ 7} A deed recorded on May 1, 1978, conveying the land from Margaret J. Morrison to appellees, Paul E. and Vesta G. Morrison, stated: "EXCEPTING AND RESERVING THEREFROM all coal, gas and oil with the right of first parties, their heirs and assigns, at any time to drill and operate for oil and gas and mine all coal." (Capitalization sic.) Subsequent transfers in the chain of title—from the Morrisons to themselves in joint tenancy with survivorship rights in 1983 and from the Morrisons to their respective trusts in 1998—reiterated this "excepting and reserving" language regarding the mineral rights in the land.

{¶ 8} On August 24, 2017, Tonning and the Ericksons filed this action in the Guernsey County Common Pleas Court to quiet title and for a declaratory judgment that they own the mineral rights to the land by virtue of the reservation. The Morrisons, individually and as co-trustees of their respective trusts, answered the complaint and counterclaimed for a declaration that the reservation of the mineral rights had been extinguished under Ohio's Marketable Title Act or, alternatively, that the mineral rights were deemed abandoned under the 1989 version of R.C. 5301.56, Ohio's Dormant Mineral Act.

{¶ 9} The trial court granted the motion for judgment on the pleadings filed by Tonning and the Ericksons, declaring that they owned the mineral rights defined in the reservation and quieting title to the rights in their favor.¹

{¶ 10} On appeal to the Fifth District, the Morrisons asserted one assignment of error: "The trial court erred when it held that the severed mineral interest at issue was preserved from extinguishment under the Ohio Marketable Title Act." 2019-Ohio-5430, 151 N.E.3d 110, ¶ 21. The court of appeals agreed and reversed the trial court's judgment, explaining that "the Reservation does not state by whom the interest was originally reserved, nor to whom the interest was granted. * * * Repetition of the Reservation does not endow it with the missing information, nor does it transform the Reservation from general to specific." Id. at ¶ 40.

{¶ 11} We accepted the Ericksons’ appeal² to review two propositions of law:

1. The Marketable Title Act does not require that a reservation set forth the name of the person holding the interest in order to be specific and preserve the interest.

2. A property holder's fee simple interest is preserved under the Marketable Title Act where the party seeking relief under the Marketable Title Act had actual knowledge of the interest.

See 158 Ohio St.3d 1487, 2020-Ohio-1634, 143 N.E.3d 527. Because the resolution of the first proposition of law resolves this case, it is not necessary for this court to reach the second proposition of law.

Positions of the Parties

{¶ 12} The Ericksons maintain that neither R.C. 5301.49 nor our caselaw construing it requires a reservation to include the name of the owner of a mineral interest in order for the interest to be preserved under Ohio's Marketable Title Act. Even in the absence of a specific name in the reservation, they contend, a title search would reveal the owner of the reservation "by a simple review of the chain of title, reading the Reservation Deed filed in 1926, and searching that Reservation Deed forward in time." According to the Ericksons, the owner of the reservation can be determined through the chain of title and the reservation therefore "is a ‘specific reference’ and is distinguishable from a general reference to ‘easements of record’ or another catch-all." The reservation is not a "general reference" under R.C. 5301.49(A), they conclude, because "the reference accurately and unambiguously describes the interest at issue," and for this reason, it was not extinguished under the Marketable Title Act.

{¶ 13} The Morrisons rely on our decision in Blackstone v. Moore , 155 Ohio St.3d 448, 2018-Ohio-4959, 122 N.E.3d 132, ¶ 16-18, for the proposition that when a reference to an interest created prior to the root of title does not provide the relevant conveyance index's volume and page, the reference is sufficient to preserve the interest only if it includes both the type of interest created and the name of its owner. The Morrisons contend that under the Marketable Title Act, a title examiner needs to review only the language of the root of title and the instruments recorded during the 40 years subsequent to the root of title to locate any specific references to an interest predating the root of title. And here, they argue, the prior interest cannot be located without a more extensive search, since none of the recorded title transactions within the relevant 40-year period refer to the Ericksons. According to the Morrisons, repetition of a pre-root-of-title interest in subsequently recorded title transactions with neither a reference to the named owners of the interest nor the recording information of the instrument creating it does not preserve that interest. As argued by the Morrisons, "[b]ecause there is nothing contained within the repetitions cluing the reader as to the owner of the pre-root interest, they are not specific references."

{¶ 14} Based on those arguments, we address a single, dispositive question of law: whether a reference to a reservation of mineral rights in a surface landowner's root of title and in subsequently recorded title transactions is a "general reference" that is insufficient to preserve the reservation pursuant to R.C. 5301.49(A) if it does not name the owner of the reserved rights.

Law and Analysis

{¶ 15} Reviewing the meaning of R.C. 5301.49(A) returns us to a familiar place: statutory interpretation. As we explained long ago, "[t]he question is not what did the general assembly intend to enact, but what is the meaning of that which it did enact."

Slingluff v. Weaver , 66 Ohio St. 621, 64 N.E. 574 (1902), paragraph two of the syllabus. "When the language of a statute is plain and unambiguous and conveys a clear and definite meaning, there is no need for this court to apply the rules of statutory...