Murphy v. Sun Oil Co.
| Decision Date | 13 January 1937 |
| Docket Number | No. 8184.,8184. |
| Citation | 86 F.2d 895 |
| Parties | MURPHY v. SUN OIL CO. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
R. L. House, of San Antonio, Tex., and Felix A. Raymer, of Houston, Tex., for appellant.
J. W. Timmins and T. L. Foster, both of Dallas, Tex., and B. D. Tarlton, of Corpus Christi, Tex., for appellee.
Before HUTCHESON and HOLMES, Circuit Judges, and STRUM, District Judge.
The suit was in trespass to try title by petition in the usual form for a tract of 68½ acres of land which was alleged to exceed in value the sum of $3,000, exclusive of interest and costs. The ground of jurisdiction was diversity, plaintiff being a resident citizen of the state of New Jersey, and defendant of the state of Texas.
Defendant filed a plea in abatement and to the jurisdiction of the court, alleging nonjoinder of necessary and indispensable parties, to wit, the lessors of the oil and gas lease under which plaintiff claims, and subject to the plea filed the statutory answer of not guilty, and pleaded the statutes of limitations of three, five, and ten years. (Vernon's Ann.Civ.St.Tex. arts. 5507, 5509, 5510)
Tried on jury waiver, there were findings and judgment for plaintiff. Appellant is here urging that for want of jurisdiction the suit should not have been entertained, (1) because plaintiff did not prove that the requisite jurisdictional amount was involved, and (2) because the court ought not to have proceeded in the case in the absence of lessors, who, being residents of Texas, could not have been joined without ousting the jurisdiction.
We are satisfied that the jurisdictional points are without merit. As to the first point, the want of necessary parties, it is plain that appellant has overlooked the fact that this action is not in equity to remove cloud, but is at law to try title. In such an action one cotenant can sue for and recover title to the whole tract for the benefit of himself and his cotenant, as against one having no title, and it is settled law in Texas that a lessor and lessee in an oil and gas lease are cotenants. Padgett v. Guilmartin, 106 Tex. 551, 172 S.W. 1101; Taylor v. Higgins Oil & Fuel Co. (Tex. Civ.App.) 2 S.W.(2d) 288; Allen v. Peters, 77 Tex. 59, 13 S.W. 767; Sheffield v. Hogg, 124 Tex. 290, 77 S.W.(2d) 1021, 80 S.W. (2d) 741; Evans v. Mills (C.C.A.) 67 F. (2d) 840.
As to the second point, the failure to prove the jurisdictional amount, there is an admission in the record that the subject matter in controversy was more than $3,000. The force of this admission cannot be qualified by the position appellant now takes that that admission was as to the 68½ acres in controversy, and not as to the seven-eighths interest in it which appellee was really pressing. It cannot be so qualified, first, because the whole tract was the subject matter of the controversy, and the whole tract was recovered. It cannot be for the further reason that, if it be assumed that, after appellee's plea in abatement for want of necessary parties was overruled, he understood that the seven-eighths interest of plaintiff as lessee was the subject matter of the controversy, this admission must be taken as specifically admitting that the value of that seven-eighths was in excess of $3,000. Nothing in McNutt v. General Motors Acceptance Corporation, 298 U.S. 178, 56 S.Ct. 780, 80 L.Ed. 1135, supports appellant's contention. The opinion in that case pointed out that the court made no adequate finding upon the issue of jurisdictional amount and that the record contained no evidence to support the allegations of the bill. Here there was a definite admission and finding that the jurisdictional amount existed. Plaintiff pleaded to the jurisdiction on the ground alone of want of parties. His concession that there was the requisite diversity and amount to give jurisdiction and the court's definite finding that there was fully and completely satisfy the most rigid requirements.
On the merits appellant insists that, though plaintiff made out a paper title, this was overthrown by defendant's showing (1) of an equitable title based upon a parol sale, the payment of the consideration and the making of valuable improvements, and (2) of a limitation title under the ten-year statute. The claim of equitable title was based on the contention that, though the deed from King to Dilworth under which appellant holds did not describe the land in controversy, it was pointed out in the negotiations as part of the land to be deeded and must be held to have passed by the sale.
The evidence was heard orally. The District Judge found against defendant's claim of parol...
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...120 Tex. 121, 39 S.W.2d 22. This Court has applied these principles on several occasions in diversity suits. In Murphy v. Sun Oil Company, 5 Cir., 1936, 86 F.2d 895, 896, Sun, as owner of the mineral leasehold, brought an action in trespass to try title without joining its lessor. Defendant......
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