Pan American Petroleum Corporation v. Candelaria

• Decision Date: 12 November 1968
• Docket Number: No. 9848.,9848.
• Citation: 403 F.2d 351
• Parties: PAN AMERICAN PETROLEUM CORPORATION, Northeast Blanco Development Corp., Blackwood & Nichols Company, a partnership, El Paso Natural Gas Company, and Agnes M. Lloyd, individually and as ancillary executrix of the Estate of A. M. Lloyd, deceased, Appellants, v. Manuelita CANDELARIA, Mrs. J. D. Salazar, Maria C. Moreno, Bennie C. Martinez, Genevieve Candelaria, Ana Maria Candelaria, Augustina Baumer, Frank Candelaria, Maria Elena Byron, Dolores A. Candelaria, a minor by her guardian and mother, Mary O. Candelaria, Mary O. Candelaria, individually, and Orville C. McCallister, Jr., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

403 F.2d 351 (1968)

PAN AMERICAN PETROLEUM CORPORATION, Northeast Blanco Development Corp., Blackwood & Nichols Company, a partnership, El Paso Natural Gas Company, and Agnes M. Lloyd, individually and as ancillary executrix of the Estate of A. M. Lloyd, deceased, Appellants, v. Manuelita CANDELARIA, Mrs. J. D. Salazar, Maria C. Moreno, Bennie C. Martinez, Genevieve Candelaria, Ana Maria Candelaria, Augustina Baumer, Frank Candelaria, Maria Elena Byron, Dolores A. Candelaria, a minor by her guardian and mother, Mary O. Candelaria, Mary O. Candelaria, individually, and Orville C. McCallister, Jr., Appellees.

No. 9848.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

November 12, 1968.

Paul A. Cooter and Robert A. Johnson, Roswell, N. M. (Atwood & Malone, Roswell, N. M., Hardie, Grambling, Sims & Galatzan, and William J. Mounce, El Paso, Tex., Cooney & Briones, and James B. Cooney, Farmington, N. M., and McAfee, Dudley, Taft, Cates & Mark, and Kenneth E. McAfee, Oklahoma City, Okla., on the brief), for appellants.

Orville C. McCallister, Jr. and James M. Durrett, Jr., of Rhodes, McCallister & Durrett, Albuquerque, N. M., for appellees.

Before LEWIS, SETH and HICKEY, Circuit Judges.

SETH, Circuit Judge.

The appellees commenced this action against the appellants asserting that they were the owners of a tract of land (and the minerals underlying it) located in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, and thereby challenging appellants' claim to the minerals. Appellees obtained a judgment which decreed that their title to the minerals was quieted against appellants. Appellees also recovered a money judgment representing the value of natural gas produced by appellants and attributed to the tract in question.

The litigation has arisen by reason of the fact that the entire original tract, owned by B. A. Candelaria during his lifetime, was bisected by the San Juan River which was the county line between Rio Arriba and San Juan Counties. Candelaria died in 1926; the taxes on the land thereafter became delinquent, and the entire tract was sold for taxes to Mr. Saul A. Yager. The land had been assessed only in San Juan County by Mr. Candelaria, and the deeds at the tax sale in 1944 recited that the lands were in San Juan County. Thereafter Yager also returned the land for taxes only in San Juan County. No part of the land was rendered for taxes in Rio Arriba County until 1962 when the portion in that county was there returned by the heirs of Candelaria.

In 1947 Saul A. Yager filed a quiet title suit in the District Court of San Juan County based on his tax deeds, and in his complaint described all the lands by public land survey description and recited that they were located in San Juan County. The survey description used in the suit to quiet title included the entire tract and hence included land in both San Juan and Rio Arriba Counties. The record shows that B. A. Candelaria was not personally served with process (he had died in 1926), nor were any of the appellees herein served with process. No notice of lis pendens was filed in Rio Arriba County.

In 1948 Saul A. Yager executed two oil and gas leases to Wayne Moore describing all the lands by their public lands survey description and reciting that they were located in San Juan County. The appellants are successors in interest to lessee Wayne Moore, and undertook to develop the entire tract and adjoining lands for natural gas. As a part of this development the tract was included in a unit agreement. Also in 1953 they obtained from the New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission an order pooling this entire tract and other lands into four separate drilling and proration units. Wells were drilled on each of the units, and portions of the land involved herein were dedicated to each of the four wells. The total acreage dedicated to the four wells included all of the disputed lands, but none of the wells were physically located on such land.

The appellants have received an allowable (a permitted total gas production for a stated period of time) from the New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission for each of the four wells. This allowable was based upon the total acreage dedicated to each well. The allowable thus has been proportionately increased by the dedication to each well of the disputed Rio Arriba County acreage. If appellants had not dedicated the disputed acreage to each well, their allowable production would have been proportionately reduced. The trial court found that the four wells drilled by the appellants have drained gas from the Rio Arriba County lands involved herein, although none of the wells are located on the land itself.

On this appeal the appellants first assert that the appellees cannot collaterally attack the quiet title decree entered by the San Juan County District Court in 1947. This decree, as indicated above, described lands in both counties.

The general rule regarding collateral attacks of prior judgments is well established in New Mexico. The New Mexico Supreme Court in Atlantic Refining Co. v. Jones, 63 N.M. 236, 316 P.2d 557 (1957), quoting McDonald v. Padilla, 53 N.M. 116, 202 P.2d 970 (1948), said:

"* * * Every presumption not inconsistent with the record, is to be indulged in favor of the jurisdiction of courts of general jurisdiction whose judgments are collaterally attacked; and their judgments, though void for want of jurisdiction and would be so held on direct attack, cannot be questioned on that ground when attacked collaterally, unless the lack of jurisdiction appears affirmatively in the judgment roll."

Thus the question becomes one of the jurisdiction of the San Juan County District Court over the subject matter — the land in Rio Arriba County. If the court lacked such jurisdiction then its judgment may be collaterally attacked as to this land in a subsequent proceeding. The New Mexico Supreme Court in Jencks v. Goforth, 57 N.M. 627, 261 P.2d 655 (1953), stated the general rule. See also Bonds v. Joplin's Heirs, 64 N.M. 342, 328 P.2d 597 (1958).

In New Mexico actions to quiet title are statutory proceedings, and the act providing for such suits has from time to time made provision as to where they may be brought. In 1910, the Supreme Court of New Mexico in Jemez Land Co. v. Garcia, 15 N.M. 316, 107 P. 683, held that Comp.Laws 1897, section 2950 provided that any actions which affected an interest in land had to be brought in the county where the land or any portion of it was situated. Later in Atler v. Stolz, 38 N.M. 529, 37 P.2d 243 (1934), the court held that the statute requiring an action affecting an interest in land to be brought in the county where the land was situated was mandatory and that lack of jurisdiction (by bringing it elsewhere) could not be waived. This position was reaffirmed in Heath v. Gray, 58 N.M. 665, 274 P.2d 620 (1954), where the court also stated that in a quiet title action proper venue is jurisdictional. The court there cited the Atler and Jemez Land Co. cases. Also, see State ex rel. Board of County Com'rs of Harding County v. Board of County Commissioners, 59 N.M. 9, 277 P.2d 960 (1954); Lucus v. Ruckman, 59 N.M. 504, 287 P.2d 68 (1955); State ex rel. Hill v. District Court of Eighth Judicial District, 79 N.M. 33, 439 P.2d 551 (1968).

Thus there would seem to be no question that the New Mexico venue statute as to suits to quiet title is a jurisdictional one. The appellant however argues that the venue was proper in the 1947 quiet title suit.

The general venue statute in effect in 1947 (section 19-501 of the 1941 Compilation) provided:

"All civil actions commenced in the district courts shall be brought and shall be commenced in counties as follows, and not otherwise:

* * * * * *

"Fourth. (a). When lands or any interest in lands are the object of any suit in whole or in part, such suit shall be brought in the county where the land or any portion thereof is situate."

The statute referring specifically to quiet title actions (section 25-1301 of the 1941 Compilation) then provided:

"An action to determine and quiet the title of real property may be brought by anyone having or claiming an interest therein, * * * whether in or out of possession of the same, against any person or persons, claiming title thereto, or parcel or portion thereof, * * *. Any number of tracts of land may be embraced in the same action when they lie in the same county; whether claimed by different persons or not." (Emphasis added.)

Under the circumstances before us the statute relating specifically to actions to quiet title should be given primary consideration. This statute made no provision for the bringing of such a suit in one county covering land in another. This failure, plus the language in the act italicized above, leads to the conclusion that in such a statutory action the court's jurisdiction was limited to lands in the county where the action was brought.

After the suit in question was completed the quiet title statute was amended to replace the part italicized above with, "* * * and in instances where a tract of land title to which is sought to be quieted lies within more than one 1 county such action may be brought in any county in which part of said tract lies." This change in 1951, of course, removed any question as to suits after its effective date. The appellant contends that the change only cleared up any misunderstanding but did not add to the jurisdiction the district court already enjoyed. The title to the 1951 act amending the section recited that it would "permit" suits in one county for lands in several but this is not of great significance.¹ The Legislature also in 1951 amended the general venue statute, quoted in part above, making a comparable change, but added a requirement that a lis pendens be filed in each county. This requirement was a significant change in the prescribed procedure.

There is some text authority and cases from other jurisdictions which hold that suits which affect interests in land...