St. Martin v. Mobil Exploration

• Decision Date: 16 August 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-30067,99-30067
• Citation: 224 F.3d 402
• Parties: (5th Cir. 2000) MICHAEL X. ST. MARTIN and VIRGINIA RAYNE ST. MARTIN, Plaintiffs-Appellees-Cross-Appellants v. MOBIL EXPLORATION & PRODUCING U.S. INC.; PHILLIPS PETROLEUM COMPANY, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 402

224 F.3d 402 (5th Cir. 2000)

MICHAEL X. ST. MARTIN and VIRGINIA RAYNE ST. MARTIN, Plaintiffs-Appellees-Cross-Appellants v. MOBIL EXPLORATION & PRODUCING U.S. INC.; PHILLIPS PETROLEUM COMPANY, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees

No. 99-30067

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

August 16, 2000

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana

Before BARKSDALE, BENAVIDES and STEWART, Circuit Judges.

BENAVIDES, Circuit Judge:

Defendant oil companies appeal from a $240,000 damage award based upon a finding that they failed adequately to maintain spoil banks on canals operated by them, resulting in damage to a freshwater flotant marsh. Because we find that the district court carefully weighed the competing evidence and fashioned a reasonable remedy for the breach of the canal servitude agreements in issue, we affirm.

I. Facts and Procedural History

This case involves a suit for restoration and money damages arising out of the deterioration of a portion of the Mandalay Marsh in Terrebone Parish, Louisiana. The plaintiffs in this case are private landowners who live near the tract in question and who hold other land in coastal Louisiana. The defendants are oil companies who possess an overlapping mineral lease and canal servitudes across the St. Martins' property. The St. Martins allege that the oil companies' use of and failure to maintain the canals has caused erosion and other damage to the freshwater flotant marsh ecosystem present on their property.¹

The previous owner of the property was Southdown Sugars, Inc. [Southdown]. Beginning in 1966, Southdown initiated several mineral conveyances which separated the surface ownership of the property from the minerals. In that same year, Superior Oil Company [Superior] secured servitudes to dredge canals from the Intracoastal Waterway into the tract in issue. Superior dredged the canals in 1966 and used them until 1985, when it conveyed its interest in the canal servitudes and the adjoining oilfield to defendant Mobil Exploration & Producing U.S., Inc. [Mobil]. In 1995, Mobil conveyed its interest in the field to defendant Phillips Petroleum Company [Phillips].

In 1992, the St. Martins purchased the surface rights to the 7,000 acre tract owned by Southdown for about $245.00/acre. Soon thereafter, they conveyed all but 2,400 acres of the tract to the Nature Conservancy for approximately their purchase price. The St. Martins also donated $140,000 to the Nature Conservancy in support of its efforts to set up a wildlife refuge on the Mandalay marsh property. The area of marsh in issue in this case comprises 357 acres of the 2,400 acres the St. Martins retained.

The St. Martins contend that gaps in the spoil banks flanking the oil companies' canals allow water to flow into and out of their marsh, eroding the floating marsh mat and leaving open ponds. These open ponds disrupt the ecosystem, represent loss of the vegetative mat, and provide openings for invasive plant species. Aerial photographs taken before the St. Martins' purchase of the marsh reveal the formation of open-water ponds. The St. Martins provided additional aerial photograph evidence of further formation and enlargement of ponds subsequent to their 1992 purchase.

In 1995, the St. Martins filed the instant case against Mobil and Phillips. They describe their complaint as raising causes of action under the canal servitude agreements, the mineral lease, and negligence-based tort. They raised additional claims in their post-trial brief based on Louisiana Civil Code articles 667-669, Civil Code article 2317, breach of promise, failure to use alternative means, and the public trust doctrine. The complaint sought damages pursuant to a restoration plan for the marsh, which would include constructing bulkheads along the canals and refilling the eroded areas.

The oil companies moved for summary judgment on two aspects of the St. Martins' claims, arguing that they were not entitled to compensation for damage that occurred prior to their purchase of the marsh and that damages should not exceed the value of the property. The district court granted judgment on the first argument and denied it on the second portion of their motion. A bench trial followed on liability and damages accruing since 1992.

After requesting additional submissions from the St. Martins to clarify the extent of damage since 1992 and to scale back their proposed restoration plan, the court found that the oil companies had an implied obligation to maintain spoil banks arising out of the canal servitude agreements and that they had breached that duty. The court further found that forty acres of marsh had been damaged since 1992, for which the defendants were 60% responsible (natural forces being responsible for the remaining 40% of the damage). The court ordered restoration damages in the amount of $10,000 per acre adjusted for percent responsibility, or $240,000 total. Defendants appeal the determination of liability and the amount of damages; the St. Martins appeal the limitation of the award to the equivalent of 24 acres of damaged marsh.

II. Analysis

Appellants attack the district court's judgment on three primary fronts. First, they argue that the St. Martins failed to adduce adequate causation evidence linking the oil companies to any deterioration of the marsh. As part of that argument, the oil companies contend that the district court erred in allowing the plaintiffs' expert, Dr. Robert Chabreck, to testify. Defendants also argue that even if causation were to be established against them, they could not be held liable under Louisiana servitude or tort law. They contend that the St. Martins' claim is prescribed as a matter of Louisiana law and that, contrary to the district court's determination, the canal servitude agreement does not impose a continuing duty to maintain and repair the canal banks. Lastly, the oil companies argue that the damages awarded by the district court exceed those allowed by Louisiana law because, on a per-acre basis, they are greater than the market value and purchase price of the land.

A. Causation

Defendants challenge the sufficiency of the St. Martins' causation evidence on two basic grounds. First, they argue that the St. Martins' expert evidence was deficient under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993) and related precedent. Second, they argue on the merits that natural forces, and not their activities in the canal servitudes, caused whatever damage the marsh has sustained over the last thirty years.

In cases presenting questions of both law and fact, this Court reviews findings of fact for clear error and questions of law de novo. See Bridges v. City of Bossier, 92 F.3d 329, 332 (5th Cir. 1996). The district court's determination of admissibility of expert evidence under Daubert is reviewed for abuse of discretion. See Moore v. Ashland Chem., 151 F.3d 269, 274 (5th Cir. 1998) (en banc). Even assuming an abuse of discretion occurred, the erroneous admission is subject to a harmless error analysis. See United States v. Matthews, 178 F.3d 295, 304 (5th Cir. 1999); United States v. Griffith, 118 F.3d 318, 323 (5th Cir. 1997). "In a bench trial, reversal is only warranted if all of the competent evidence is insufficient to support the judgment, or if it affirmatively appears that the incompetent evidence induced the court to make an essential finding which it otherwise would not have made." Southern Pacific Trans. Co. v. Chabert, 973 F.2d 441, 448 (5th Cir. 1992).

1. Admissibility of plaintiffs' expert evidence

Defendants first challenge the district court's acceptance of the St. Martins' expert, Dr. Chabreck. Dr. Chabreck is a specialist in the ecology of the region and not an expert in hydrology. He has, however, spent many years in observation of coastal marshes in Louisiana and had visited and examined the marsh in question on several occasions prior to trial.

Defendants assert that Dr. Chabreck fails all of the non-exclusive Daubert factors, in that he is not a trained hydrologist, hasn't published an article relating to his specific hypothesis in this case, his hypothesis has not been subject to peer review and is not supported by specific studies and he hasn't conducted tests to verify his hypothesis. But see Rushing v. Kansas City Southern Ry. Co., 185 F.3d 496, 507 (5th Cir. 1999) ("As long as some reasonable indication of qualifications is adduced, the court may admit the evidence without abdicating its gate-keeping function.").

Defendants' arguments on this point fail for several reasons. First, Dr. Chabreck's expertise in marshland ecology and in the erosion of vegetative mats in particular, along with his personal observation of the St. Martins' property, sufficiently qualified him to testify as an expert.²

Defendants suggest that only a qualified hydrologist could have testified as to whether canal water intrusion occurred at sufficient levels and speeds to erode the vegetative mat. Cf. Wilson v. Woods, 163 F.3d 935, 937 (5th Cir. 1999) (in deciding whether to admit expert testimony, the district court considers whether the witness is qualified in an appropriate field).

While a hydrologist might be better trained than a marshland ecologist in the abstract physics of water forces, he would have less relevant expertise in the kinds and amounts of stresses on the organisms making up the vegetative mat that could cause degradation of the mat. A hydrologist could (and did) testify as to observed speeds of canal water intrusion into the marsh through the gaps in the defendants' canals' spoil banks;³ however, the significance of that information for the health and stability of the vegetative mat would be within the expertise of a marshland ecologist such as Dr. Chabreck. The district court did not abuse its discretion in finding Dr. Chabreck qualified to testify as to the dynamics within...