Iberville Land Co. v. Amerada Petroleum Corporation, 10710.
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit) |
| Citation | 141 F.2d 384 |
| Docket Number | No. 10710.,10710. |
| Parties | IBERVILLE LAND CO. v. AMERADA PETROLEUM CORPORATION. |
| Decision Date | 17 March 1944 |
141 F.2d 384 (1944)
IBERVILLE LAND CO.
v.
AMERADA PETROLEUM CORPORATION.
No. 10710.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
March 17, 1944.
Alexis Brian, of New Orleans, La., for appellant.
L. K. Benson, of New Orleans, La., for appellee.
Before HUTCHESON, HOLMES, and LEE, Circuit Judges.
LEE, Circuit Judge.
Iberville Land Company, an Iowa corporation, brought this action against the Amerada Petroleum Corporation, a Delaware corporation, alleging that defendant conducted without its knowledge and consent, in July and August, 1939, certain seismograph operations on lands owned by plaintiff, situated in the Parishes of Iberville and of St. Martin, in the State of Louisiana. Plaintiff prayed for judgment in the sum of $75,000, which was alleged to be the value to the defendant of the information it allegedly obtained.
Defendant moved to dismiss the complaint "as failing to state a claim upon which relief could be granted in that said complaint on its face disclosed that the matters complained of were barred by the liberative prescription of one year under Louisiana Civil Code, Articles 3536 and 3537."1 The Court below sustained the plea and dismissed the complaint. Plaintiff appealed.
The question presented is whether this is a suit in tort for trespass, a quasi offense, prescriptible in one year from knowledge under the Codal Articles pleaded, or, as contended by appellant, an action in quasi contract, prescriptible in ten years under Civil Code Article 3544.2
Appellee, in support of its contention that this is an action in tort, cites and relies on Article 2315 of the Louisiana Civil Code, which, in part, provides:
"Every act whatever of man that causes damages to another, obliges him by whose fault it happened to repair it; * * *"
Appellant, in support of its contention that this is an action in quasi contract, cites and relies on Article 2301 of the Louisiana Civil Code. It provides:
"He who receives what is not due to him, whether he receives it through error or knowingly, obliges himself to restore it to him from whom he has unduly received it."3
The Codal Article relied on by appellant calls for the restoration of the specific thing wrongfully acquired. If the thing thus acquired exists and can be restored, the plaintiff either may sue for
The bill of complaint alleged that "in the months of July and August, 1939, without petitioner's knowledge or consent" defendant's agents "entered upon petitioner's said lands and caused to be exploded thereon and near thereto * * * heavy charges of dynamite at sundry shot points on said lands * * * and placed recording instruments in some instances on, and in other instances near, the said lands * * * the said operations consisting of what are commonly known as geophysical explorations by seismograph, * * *"; that "by these quasi-contractual entries upon petitioner's said lands, for which entry defendant tacitly and in good conscience covenanted to pay, it acquired information of great value to it as to the existence or absence of oil and gas and possibly sulphur under all of petitioner's lands, * * * as well as under adjoining lands, which information said defendant used for its private purposes in selecting (as it later did select) the most promising lands for the development of mineral leases in nearby oil fields * * * which information was of value to the defendant of at least $75,000.00"; that "defendant concealed its operations on petitioner's said lands and never disclosed to petitioner even the fact that said geophysical operations had been conducted at all, and particularly did not disclose to petitioner any results of the said geophysical operations, and did not offer at any time to pay petitioner for said privilege or for benefits derived therefrom, and that petitioner consequently had no knowledge of any geophysical operations on any part of said lands until the month of January, 1941"; that "petitioner * * * had given no consent to the geophysical explorations" and had "demanded * * * payment for the value of said explorations on all of said lands, which demand was refused." The prayer was for judgment against defendant in the sum of $75,000, with interest and costs.
It is well settled in Louisiana that where, as here, the acts and conduct which give rise to the cause of action are treated as wrongful and illegal and amount in law to an offense or quasi offense, and where, as here, the demand is for a money judgment for the value of property illegally taken, the suit is a tort action to recover damages for an offense or quasi offense and is barred by the prescription of one year pleaded and sustained in the Court below.
In Martin v. Texas Company, 150 La. 556, 90 So. 922, 923, the Court said:
"Plaintiff's suit is for the value of the oil, not for the oil itself. If defendant is liable for its value, it is because it bought the oil from one who was not its owner, and converted it, although it did so in good faith. The suit does not grow out of a contract or quasi contract, but out of the violation of law prohibiting a person from buying the property of another from one who is not the owner, and who has no authority to sell it, and from converting it, and, if he does do so, making him liable therefor. Such being plaintiff's cause of action, it is one for damages to the amount of the value of the property, arising ex delicto, and is governed by the prescription of one year prescribed by article 3536 of the Civil Code."
The Court then drew the distinction between actions in tort and actions in quasi contract as follows:
"Plaintiff cites Gaty, McCune & Co. v. Babers, 32 La.Ann. 1091, and Heirs of Burney v. Ludeling, 47 La.Ann. 73, 16 So. 507, in support of his contention, that the plea of prescription of one year should not be maintained. While these cases give support to that contention, yet we think that, under the law, a distinction must be made between an action for the property itself and one for its value, in cases of this nature. The latter are suits for damages arising ex delicto, while the former are not. The form of the action governs in matters of prescription."
In Liles v. Barnhart, 152 La. 419, 93 So. 490, 492, a mineral lease was granted by Barnhart to the Gulf Refining Company under which the Refining Company drilled wells and produced oil and gas. Liles and others asserted and were decreed to own a one-fifth interest in said properties, and
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