Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States
| Decision Date | 29 February 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 00-512L,No. 11-775L,00-512L,11-775L |
| Parties | PETRO-HUNT, L.L.C., Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. Claims Court |
Takings; Judicial Takings Claim; Motion to Dismiss; Subject-Matter Jurisdiction.
Joseph R. White, White Law Firm, New Orleans, LA, for plaintiff.
William J. Shapiro, Trial Attorney, Natural Resources Section, Environment and Natural Resources Division, United States Department of Justice, Sacramento, CA, for the defendant. With him was Emily M. Meeker, Trial Attorney, Natural Resources Section, and John C. Cruden, Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
The above captioned cases involve the government's alleged taking in violation of the Fifth Amended to the United States Constitution of ninety mineral servitudes underlying roughly 58,000 acres of the Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana. Plaintiff alleges that the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit took its property by holding that the mineral servitudes were subject to the Louisiana law of prescription. See Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States, 365 F.3d 385 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 543 U.S. 1034 (2004). These cases are currently before this court on defendant's motion to dismissplaintiff's judicial takings claims and the parties' cross motions for summary judgment on the judicial takings claims.2
Between 1932 and 1934, two companies, Bodcaw Lumber Company of Louisiana (Bodcaw) and Grant Timber & Manufacturing Company of Louisiana, Inc. (Grant), conveyed 96 mineral servitudes underlying approximately 180,000 acres of land to Good Pine Oil Company, Inc., a joint venture created by Bodcaw, Grant, and three other lumber companies.
In the early 1930s, the United States approached Bodcaw and Grant with an offer to purchase the surface land of the 180,000 acres. The United States intended to acquire this land pursuant to the Weeks Law, which authorized the government to purchase lands throughout the United States to establish national forests. See Weeks Law of 1911, ch. 186, 36 Stat. 961 (1911) (). Bodcaw and Grant expressed concern over the application of the Louisiana law of prescription, which states that mineral servitudes to the owner of the surface estate extinguish after ten years of nonuse. See La. Civil Code art. 789, 3546 (1870) (). On May 29, 1935, an Assistant Solicitor of the United States Department of Agriculture issued an opinion stating that the prescriptive provisions of the Louisiana Civil Code would not apply to lands sold to the United States for national forest purposes. The Forest Service delivered the 1935 opinion to Bodcaw and Grant to ease their fears that the land would prescribe to the United States. Between 1934 and 1937, the two companies conveyed the surface land of the 180,000 non-contiguous acres to the United States through several conveyances for the creation of the Kisatchie National Forest.3
In 1940, the Louisiana legislature enacted Act 315 of 1940 (Act 315), declaring that when the United States acquired land subject to the prior sale of the oil, gas or other mineral rights, the mineral rights were imprescriptible.4 In 1948, the United States filed a quiet title action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana to determine the owner of a mineral servitude underlying approximately 800 acres of the 180,000 acres in dispute in these cases. The court held, relying on Act 315, that the Louisiana law of prescription did not apply and the servitude affecting the approximately 800 acres remained in the hands of Petro-Hunt's predecessor in interest, the Nebo Oil Company.5 See United States v. Nebo Oil Co., 90 F. Supp. at 84. Although Act 315 was passed four years after the sale of the land above the servitude affecting the approximately 800 acres, the Western District of Louisiana found that the law still applied because the conveyance occurred within ten years of Act 315. See id. at 81.
The holding of Nebo Oil came into question when the United States Supreme Court decided United States v. Little Lake Misere Land Co., 412 U.S. 580 (1973). The Little Lake Misere case involved two parcels of land in Louisiana acquired by the United States in 1937 and 1939 in accordance with the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, with the express provision that the mineral rights associated with the land were reserved to Little Lake Misere for a period of 10 years, or longer if Little Lake Misere continued the production of minerals on the site. See id. at 582-83. The Supreme Court determined that because the land acquisition was "one arising from and bearing heavily upon a federal regulatory program" and involved the United States as a party, the case should be interpreted according to federal law. See id. at 593-94. The Supreme Court held that the retroactive application of Louisiana's Act 315 was "plainly hostile to the interests of the United States" and "[t]o permit state abrogation of the explicit terms of a federal land acquisition would deal a serious blow to the congressional scheme contemplated by the Migratory Bird Conservation Act and indeed all other federal land acquisition programs." Id. at 596-97. Accordingly, the Supreme Court held that the land in question had prescribed to the United States. See id. at 604.
In 1991, the United States began granting mineral leases on some of the conveyed land at issue in these cases. In 1998, through various conveyances, Petro-Hunt became the record holder of a 64.3% undivided interest in the mineral servitudes once owned by Good Pine Oil Company, Inc. On February 18, 2000, Petro-Hunt, along with the co-owners of Petro-Hunt's mineral estate, filed a quiet title action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, seeking a declaration that they were the owners in perpetuity of the mineral servitudes. See Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States, No. 00-303 (W.D. La. filed Feb. 18, 2000). Their complaint requested a declaratory judgment quieting their title to the property, but alternatively asserted "that the actions of the United States in confiscating their mineral interests amounts to an unconstitutional taking in direct violation of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, for which Plaintiffs should be compensated." In its June 5, 2000, response to this complaint, the United States asserted that the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana lacked jurisdiction to declare an unconstitutional takings and award compensation.
On August 24, 2000, Petro-Hunt filed a complaint in this court, Case No. 00-512L, alleging that the United States had breached its contract and the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause by exercising ownership over the mineral servitudes. On November 2, 2000, the case in this court was stayed pending the resolution of the quiet title action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. On December 18, 2001, the Western District of Louisiana held that the law of prescriptions did not apply and that Petro-Hunt retained title to the mineral servitudes. Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States, 179 F. Supp. 2d 669 (W.D. La. 2001). The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed, holding that the law of prescriptions did apply to Petro-Hunt's mineral servitudes. See Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States, 365 F.3d at 399. In its ruling, the Fifth Circuit expressly relied upon the Little Lake Misere decision and a 2001 Fifth Circuit decision, Central Pines Land Co. v. United States, 274 F.3d 881 (5th Cir. 2001), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 822 (2002). See Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States, 365 F.3d at 392-93 (). Central Pines held that Cent. Pines Land Co. v. United States, 274 F.3d at 886.6Relying on Central Pines, the Fifth Circuit held that it was "prohibited from borrowing Act 315 as the federal rule of decision" and remanded the case United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana to determine which of Petro-Hunt's mineral servitudes had prescribed to the United States through nonuse. Petro Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States, 365 F.3d at 399.
In accordance with the Fifth Circuit decision, the quiet title action was remanded to the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Petro-Hunt filed a motion for trial on the issue of whether Act 315 applied to its mineral servitudes. See Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States, No. 00-0303 (W.D. La. Mar. 14, 2005). The court denied the motion, finding that the only issue to be determined was "which of the 95 servitudes not at issue in Nebo Oil ha[d] in fact prescribed for nonuse." Order, Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States, No. 00-0303 (W.D. La. Nov. 21, 2005) (internal quotation marks omitted). On December 7, 2005, the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana held that Petro-Hunt remained the owner of six servitudes,7 underlying roughly 122,000 acres, with the remaining 90 having prescribed to the United States through nonuse. Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States, No. 00-0303 (W.D. La. Dec. 7, 2005).
Petro-Hunt appealed, arguing that the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana erred in denying its motion for trial, or in the alternative, that the Fifth Circuit's 2004 mandate was clearly erroneous and should be withdrawn. See Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States, No. 06-30095, 2007 WL 715270, at *1 (5th Cir. Mar. 6, 2007), cert. denied, 552 U.S. 1242 (2008). On March 6, 2007, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the denial of the...
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