Pennington v. Colonial Pipeline Company
| Decision Date | 09 January 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 24769.,24769. |
| Parties | C. B. PENNINGTON, Appellant, v. COLONIAL PIPELINE COMPANY, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Victor A. Sachse, Fernando J. Freyre, Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, Baton Rouge, La., for appellant.
R. Gordon Kean, Jr., and Ben R. Miller, of Sanders, Miller, Downing & Kean, Baton Rouge, La., for appellee.
Before MARIS,* THORNBERRY and AINSWORTH, Circuit Judges.
On July 16, 1956, appellant C. B. Pennington obtained from the landowner, T. L. Mills, Jr., a ten-year (primary term) oil, gas and mineral lease on a tract of land containing 2,425 acres situated in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Appellant failed to sign the written lease but paid the annual delay rentals required by the lease and recorded the document in the public records of East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, on July 19, 1960.
Thereafter, on June 29, 1962, appellee Colonial Pipeline Company acquired from the landowner, Mills, a pipeline right of way across the 2,425-acre tract, and on July 26, 1962 acquired from the owner fee title to approximately 29 acres of this tract upon which it later erected pumping and storage facilities on 6 acres thereof. Colonial installed a 36-inch interstate pipeline along the right of way across the tract which became operational in October 1963. In June 1963 Pennington advised Colonial of his plan for geophysical survey of the property which called for 36 seismic dynamite shot points on the tract, 9 of which would be located on Colonial's 29 acres thereof.
Pennington contended that the operation of Colonial's facilities would interfere with his geophysical exploration and accordingly demanded that Colonial be ordered to shut down all operations on the property, drain all lines crossing the property, drain all storage tanks in the area, shut down all electrical service to the property and, if necessary, remove any structures that might interfere with the successful completion of his seismic survey of the property. Colonial denied the validity of the lease because it was never signed by Pennington as lessee and further contended that, even if valid, the mineral lessee's rights must coexist with those of Colonial and be exercised by each in such a manner as not to unreasonably interfere with the rights of the other; that Pennington's demands were totally unreasonable to a proper exercise of his rights under the lease.
The case was tried to the court without a jury with considerable testimony, much of it by experts, and the court in a well-considered opinion, with detailed findings of fact and conclusions of law, found that Pennington's demands were not in legal good faith and that he was not pursuing his lease rights in such a manner as not to unduly and unreasonably interfere with the rights of defendant Colonial. The court found that the seismic evaluation of the...
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