State v. Placid Oil Co., s. 53294

• Decision Date: 03 December 1973
• Docket Number: Nos. 53294,53295,s. 53294
• Citation: 300 So.2d 154
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana et al. v. PLACID OIL COMPANY et al., Intervention of Texaco, Inc.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 154

300 So.2d 154

STATE of Louisiana et al. v. PLACID OIL COMPANY et al., Intervention of Texaco, Inc.

Nos. 53294, 53295.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Dec. 3, 1973.

On Rehearing June 10, 1974.

Rehearings Denied Aug. 30, 1974.

Dissenting Opinion Sept. 20, 1974.

W. Scott Wilkinson, Wilkinson, Carmody & Peatross, Shreveport, Armand A. Gutierrez for Placid Oil Co. and others.

Wiley G. Lastrapes, William J. Conrad, New Orleans, Charles F. Bailey, Bailey & Hollier, Lafayette, for Texaco, Inc., intervenor-respondent.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Kenneth DeJean, Asst. Atty. Gen., Ernest R. Eldred, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Nora K. Duncan, Sp. Counsel, Baton Rouge, for State of La.; A. N. Yiannopoulos, Baton Rouge, of counsel.

Kennedy J. Gilly, John C. Christian, John T. Nasser, III, Milling, Benson, Woodward, Hillyer & Pierson, New Orleans, for J. Ray McDermott & Co., Inc.

Booth Kellough, Liskow & Lewis, Charles C. Gremillion, New Orleans, for Gulf Oil Corp.

Frank C. Allen Jr., James H. Roussel, New Orleans, for defendants-respondents.

MARCUS, Justice.

This is an action by the State of Louisiana and its mineral lessee, Gulf Oil Corporation, involving an area of land located below the ordinary high water mark of a body of water in St. Mary Parish known as 'Six Mile Lake' adjacent to Sections 49, 50 and 68, Township 15 South, Range 11 East. State seeks to be declared owner of this land; additionally, plaintiffs seek an accounting of the proceeds of three oil wells drilled thereon by Placid Oil Company and designated as S. G. Todd Wells 3, 4 and 5. Made original defendants were Placid Oil Company and its assignee, J. Ray McDermott & Company, Inc. Pursuant to exceptions of non-joinder of indispensable parties filed by Placid and McDermott, numerous alleged owners (from whom Placid acquired mineral leases) were also made party defendants. Texaco, Inc., which owns an undivided one-half of Section 68, and certain parties claiming interests in Section 68 adversely to Texaco, intervened asserting interests in opposition to State-Gulf. The conflicts between Texaco and its adversaries concerning Section 68 have been compromised. Some dispute exists among defendants regarding their ownership of subject sections; however, it was stipulated that this matter would be deferred for determination at a future date between the parties in interest. Thus, all parties, including Texaco as intervenor, are aligned as defendants in opposition to plaintiffs' claims.

Exceptions of no cause and no right of action, res judicata, judicial estoppel and stare decisis were overruled by the trial court, which rulings were affirmed by the Court of Appeal. Since we will dispose of this case on the merits and will render judgment in favor of exceptors-defendants the merits of the exceptions filed by them are of no moment.

The trial court rendered judgment in favor of defendants and against State-Gulf, rejecting their demands and decreeing the land area bounded on the south by the traverse line abutting Sections 49, 50 and 68, Township 15 South, Range 11 East, St. Mary Parish, and north to the ordinary low water mark of Six Mile Lake to be the property of the riparian landowners of these three sections. It further decreed the ordinary low water mark of Six Mile Lake as of July 8, 1963, the date of the filing of this suit, to be a line having an elevation of .11 feet above mean sea level subject to changes, if any, in said line, as may subsequently result from accretion, reliction or dereliction. It further ordered that State Lease No. 2963 dated April 18, 1956 to Gulf Refining Company and State Lease No. 3643 to Placid Oil Company be cancelled and annulled insofar as said leases purport to cover and affect any of the property as described in the judgment and the subject of this suit. The trial court further rendered judgment against State-Gulf, in solido, taxing as court costs for expert witness fees for Placid the sum of $31,733.29 and in favor of Texaco the sum of $31,345.94. No mention was made by the trial judge of Act 341 of 1952, R.S. 9:1151. The judgment of the trial court contained other decrees not pertinent to this appeal.

The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court in holding that Six Mile Lake constitutes a stream as opposed to a lake, thereby making applicable the rules of property provided in Articles 455 and 509 of the Civil Code. Having arrived at that conclusion, the Court of Appeal then held: (a) that the portion of the area in dispute identified and referred to as the 'Woodland Tract' comprised a part of the bank of Six Mile Lake; that, under the provisions of Article 455, C.C., the banks of streams belong to the riparian owners; and that such construction of said Article 455 coincides with the rule of property contained in Article 509, which gives alluvion to the owner of land adjacent not only to a river but also to a stream; (b) that the portion of the area in dispute referred to as 'Barnett's Cove' properly constitutes alluvion or accretionary build-up of a land mass which is attached to and belongs to the riparian landowners; (c) that the portion of the area in dispute identified as the 'Island Area' is land formed not as an island which subsequently attached to the shore, but as alluvion which belongs to the riparian owners; (d) that method of ascertaining the ordinary low water mark in the area in controversy adopted by the trial court was well founded; (e) that the award for court cost and expert witness fees incurred by Placid ($31,733.29) and by Texaco ($31,345.94) was correct, such costs being assessed, in solido, against State-Gulf with Gulf to pay any portion thereof that the State was exempt from paying by law. (R.S. 13:4521) The Court of Appeal further held that the trial court erred in failing to give effect herein to Act 341 of 1952 (R.S. 9:1151) with respect to the lease by the State to Gulf dated April 18, 1956, and rejected Placid's claim of the unconstitutionality of this Act. The Court of Appeal reversed that part of the judgment which orders State Lease No. 2963 dated April 18, 1956 to Gulf cancelled and remanded the suit to the trial court for the limited purpose of establishing the ordinary low water line in the area in controversy as of April 18, 1956 in order to determine the effect of State Lease No. 2963 to Gulf on land areas located on the water side of the ordinary low water line as determined to have existed on said date. The remand also included an accounting for the value of oil and gas which may have been produced from or attributable to the land areas in question as well as ascertaining the rights, if any, for reimbursement for allocable drilling and operational costs of any of the three wells in question. Similarly, that part of the judgment of the trial court which recognized Placid, McDermott and Texaco as the owners of mineral leases affecting all the property described in such judgment was likewise reversed and remanded for the purpose of determining what part, if any, of the land in question is validly covered by State Lease No. 2963 as established by the ordinary low water mark as same is determined to have existed on April 18, 1956. In all other respects, the judgment appealed from was affirmed. 274 So.2d 402.

State and Gulf each separately applied to this Court for a writ of certiorari or review which was granted. 275 So.2d 778 (La.1973).

Relators, State of Louisiana and Gulf Oil Corporation, assigned as errors in the opinion and decree of the Court of Appeal the following:

1. The holding that Grand Lake-Six Mile Lake is a stream within the meaning of that term as used in Louisiana Civil Code Article 509.

2. The holding that the title to banks of streams belongs to the riparian owner under the provisions of Article 455 and that Article 509 grants title to alluvion to the riparian owner.

3. The holding that the areas herein identified as Barnett's Cove and the Island Area, which areas were formerly a part of the bed of Grand Lake, were formed by accretions classified as alluvion and subject to the application of Article 509.

4. The holding adopting a method for determining the ordinary low water mark in the area involved, which method is indefinite in that it, even by admission of its proposer, is not based on an objective criterion but could have as many different results as persons applying it.

5. The holding that the District Court did not abuse its discretion in taxing as costs expert witness fees in the amount of $63,079.23 which included allowances for travel, room and board in excess of those permitted by R.S. 13:3661, as well as payment for services for assistance by experts to counsel in preparation and trial of the case as distinguished from the expert's preparation to and testifying as an expert witness.

6. The additional holdings of the Court of Appeal, such as the cancelling of the lease granted by the State of Louisiana to Gulf on April 18, 1956, insofar as it covers any portion of the area in dispute, which result from the previously assigned errors.

State-Gulf assert in the first assignment of error that the Court of Appeal erred in holding that Grand Lake-Six Mile Lake is an 'other stream' within the meaning of Article 509 of the Civil Code.

It is well settled that the beds or bottoms of all navigable waters in the State, whether lakes, rivers or streams, belong to the State by virtue of its inherent sovereignty. State v. Capdeville, 146 La. 94, 83 So. 421 (1919).

We are satisfied from our examination of the record that Grand Lake-Six Mile Lake was a navigable body of water at the time Louisiana was admitted into the Union in 1812. Therefore, if Grand Lake-Six Mile Lake is classified as a lake, the State would own the bed or bottom up to the ordinary high water mark by virtue of its sovereign rights. State v. Bozeman, 156 La. 635, 101 So. 4 (1924).

With respect to the beds or bottoms of navigable rivers and streams, the State holds in...