Pioneer Production Corp. v. Segraves

• Decision Date: 08 November 1976
• Docket Number: No. 57783,57783
• Citation: 340 So.2d 270
• Parties: PIONEER PRODUCTION CORPORATION et al. v. Elizabeth Barnhill SEGRAVES et al.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 270

340 So.2d 270

PIONEER PRODUCTION CORPORATION et al. v. Elizabeth Barnhill SEGRAVES et al.

No. 57783.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Nov. 8, 1976.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 10, 1976.

Donald R. Jory, Jory & Donald, Jennings, Kenneth Gordon Jr., of Liskow & Lewis, Lafayette, for plaintiff.

F. Jefferson Millican, Jennings, for defendant-applicant.

CALOGERO, Justice.

This concursus proceeding arises out of conflicting claims by the heirs of John G. Segraves and the City of Jennings to royalty payments placed in the court registry by Pioneer Production Corporation. The payments constitute oil and gas revenue attributable to land beneath a portion of Highway 90 in the City of Jennings. Highway 90, formerly known as the Old Spanish Trail, borders land which Segraves subdivided in 1946.

Pioneer Production Corporation, owner of leases from the City of Jennings and from the heirs of John Segraves, impleaded those opposing claimants to assert their rights to the deposited funds.

The land in question was acquired by Segraves in 1918 when he purchased a thirty-acre tract immediately north and east ¹ of the right of way of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The tract included at its southern extremity (parallel and adjacent to the railroad's right of way) the road known as Old Spanish Trail. In 1930, apparently to facilitate construction, or improvement, of U.S. Highway 90, John Segraves granted to the state an eighty-foot strip of land including the existing Old Spanish Trail. The parties agree that this deed conveyed only a servitude to the state, not complete ownership of the eighty-foot strip. In 1946, John Segraves subdivided a triangular portion of his property lying to the north of the eighty-foot servitude and filed a plat ² and several replats of the subdivision, known as Segraves Subdivision.

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINS TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

The issue in this case is whether Segraves granted to the City of Jennings by means of these plats and replats a fee interest in the eighty-foot strip. Both courts below held that the City did not gain a fee interest in the property by means of the subdivision dedication. They found the heirs of John Segraves owners of the fee and thus entitled to the royalties in contest. 326 So.2d 516 (La.App.3rd Cir. 1976). We affirm.

Highways and streets are public property in this state only in the sense that they are subject to public use; their roadbeds are not necessarily owned by the state, but may instead be owned by local governments or even private persons. La.C.C. art. 658; Jones Island Realty Co. v. Middendorf, 191 La. 456, 185 So. 881 (1939); A. Yiannopoulas, Property, II La.Civ.L. Treatise § 33, at 101 (Supp.1975). But governments can gain ownership of those roadbeds in several ways, one such method being through statutory dedication. Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Co. v. Parker Oil Company, 190 La. 957, 183 So. 229 (1938); 16 La.L.Rev. 521 (1956). In the case at hand, it is agreed that the roadbed under the subject highway was owned in 1946 by John Segraves. The Segraves heirs maintain that the property subject to servitude in favor of the state remains their private property, but the City of Jennings argues that the property was transferred to the City in 1946 by virtue of the provisions of La.R.S. 33:5051 when Segraves subdivided a portion of his property. The City argues that when Segraves recorded the subdivision maps containing a reference to the highway, in so doing he dedicated to public use the property subject to the servitude along with the newly-formed streets of the subdivision.

The maps which are at issue here show the railroad tracks, designated 'Main Tract Southern Pacific R.R.,' and, parallel to the railroad, a strip of land one hundred ninety feet wide (which is divided into three strips of one hundred feet, thirty-one feet, and fifty-nine feet) with a designation near the center line of the concrete highway, 'O.S.T. Rt. 90.' The eighty-foot servitude is not indicated on the map. North of this strip are several 'blocks' (mostly rectangular) subdivided into lots of various sizes. These 'blocks' are separated by the newly-formed sixty-foot wide streets named Segraves, Winnie, Allen, and Sidney. Two of these streets, Segraves and Winnie, are perpendicular to and intersect 'O.S.T. Rt. 90'; Sidney and Segraves Streets intersect Louise Street which borders the subdivision on the east. A drainage ditch is shown on the northern border of the property. Some of the subdivision lots front on the servitude and some front on Louise Street, although most of the lots front on the interior streets mentioned above. In the original survey maps, circles mark the corners of the blocks but do not delineate the property subject to the servitude nor the concrete highway thereon.

In addition to these markings, the plat contains this statement:

'I hereby certify that this map is in accordance with provisions of Act 51 of Legislature of Louisiana for year 1930 and with Laws and ordinances of the Parish of Jefferson Davis and City of Jennings, La.

(s) JASPER L. BOURGEOIS, Surveyor.

'I hereby formally dedicate to public use the Streets as shown on this Map. (S) J. G. SEAGRAVES, Owner.'

The mention of the 1930 Act and the owner's dedication of the streets refer to the statutory requirements which set out procedures which a landowner could follow to create a subdivision in an urban area. The 1930 Act was the source provision for the present statute, R.S. 33:5051, which allows a landowner to subdivide his property so long as he fulfills certain requirements including formally dedicating to public use all the streets, alleys and public squares in the subdivision. The statute provides more fully that:

'Whenever the Owner of any real estate desires to lay off the same into squares or lots With streets or alleys between the squares or lots and with the intention of selling or offering for sale any of the squares or lots, he shall, before selling any square or lot or any portion of same Cause the real estate to be Surveyed and Platted or Subdivided by a licensed surveyor or civil engineer into lots or blocks, or both, each designated by number, and set stakes, which shall be permanent in nature, at all of the corners of every lot and block thereof, properly marked so as to designate the correct number of each lot and block; write the legal description of the land on the plat or map, and cause to be made and filed in the office of the keeper of notarial records of the parish wherein the property is situated and copied into the conveyance record book of such parish, and a duplicate thereof filed with the assessor of the parish A correct map of the real estate so divided, which map shall contain the following:

(4) The name of each street and alley and its length and width in feet and inches.

(5) The name or number of each square or plat dedicated to public use.

(7) A formal dedication made by the owner or owners of the property or their duly authorized agent of all the streets, alleys and public squares or plats shown on The map to public use.' (emphasis added)

This statute provides for surveying and platting, or subdividing, into 'squares or lots with streets or alleys between the squares or lots' and for the dedication to public use of all 'streets, alleys and public squares' on the map. R.S. 33:5051(7). It is further required that the length, width, and name of each street be designated on the map in feet and inches. R.S. 33:5051(4). This language indicates that the legislature intended to require the platting and dedication of all of the newly-formed streets which were fashioned from the real estate to be subdivided because it refers to the streets as being Between the lots; it requires that the length and width of each street be given; and it deals with 'real estate to be subdivided,' a phrase which does not reasonably include a pre-existing, bordering highway or right of way which does not traverse or in any way divide the real estate which is being subdivided. It is clear to us that R.S. 33:5051 in its requiring the formal dedication...