State v. Placid Oil Co., 8878
Citation | 274 So.2d 402 |
Decision Date | 26 December 1972 |
Docket Number | No. 8878,8878 |
Parties | STATE of Louisiana and Gulf Oil Company v. PLACID OIL COMPANY et al., Texaco, Inc., Intervenor. |
Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana (US) |
Wm. Guste, Atty. Gen., John L. Madden, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baton Rouge, for appellant State of Louisiana.
Charles C. Gremillion, Liskow & Lewis, Melvin Evans, New Orleans, Charles B Jarrett, New Orleans, for appellant Gulf Oil Corporation.
W. Scott Wilkinson, Wilkinson, Woods, Carmody & Peatross, Shreveport, Armand A. Gutuierrez, Dallas, Tex., for appellee Placid Oil Co.
John C. Christian, Eugene D. Saunders, Milling, Saal, Saunders, Benson & Woodward, New Orleans, for appellee J. Ray McDermott & Co.
John Pat Little, Guste, Barnett & Little, New Orleans, for appellee Frederic Allen Roussel.
C. Ellis Henican, Henican, James & Cleveland, New Orleans, for appellees C. Ellis Henican, Philip E. James, Murray F. Cleveland, Gerald M. Charpentier, Jr., Stephen B. Charpentier, Esther Charpentier McCauley, Joseph Earl Charpentier, Jr., May Charpentier Stark, Louise Charpentier Seiler, Mildred Charpentier Hosley, Joan Charpentier Czmyrid, Evelyn Meynier Romaguerea, Joseph C. Meynier, Ruth Meynier Ballatin, Clementine Meynier Dixey, Albert Meynier, Bertha Meynier Moinet, Lois Meynier Henderson, Ramona Meynier Cames, Anna Meynier Dickinson.
Margot Mazeau, Normann & Normann, New Orleans, for appellees Frank S. Normann, Daisy Torian Nelson, John Nelson.
John E. Coleman, Jr., Jack C. Caldwell, Aycock, Horne, Caldwell & Coleman, Franklin, for appellees Mrs. Frances Lyons Todd, Testamentary Executrix of the Succession of Spencer G. Todd, Sr., deceased; Mrs. Florence R. Cotten, Mrs. Katherine R. Moss, Miss Emma E. Roussell, Mrs. Marguerite R. Hereford, Mrs. Kathryn R. Duputy, Mrs. Margaret R. Matthews, Philip A. Roussel, Mrs. Florence R. Raymond, George A. Roussel.
Jacob S. Landry, Jack J. Cousin, Landry, Watkins, Cousin & Bonin, New Iberia, for appellees National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, Margaret Ann Shinn, W. K. Smith.
William D. Hunter, Lippman, Hunter & Rawls, Morgan City, for appellee Mrs. Joan Rochel Landry, Wife of Alphonse D. Landry, Jr.
James H. Roussel, Phelps, Dunbar, Marks, Claverie & Sims, New Orleans, for appellees Elise Roussel, Sedley H. Roussel Alpaugh, Marie H. Roussel, William D. Roussel, Jr., James H. Roussel, Susie Rochel Eggleston, Edvige Rochel, Angela Devlin, Shirley Devlin Bridges, Daniel J. Devlin, III, Michael Coles Devlin, Angela Jane Devlin, William J. Devlin, Jr., Elizabeth Devlin Chipley, Philip A. Devlin, Thomas J. Devlin, John J. Devlin, Jr., Amelie Cornay, Mrs. John Church, Florian A. Cornay, J. N. Wenger, Mrs. William C. Dawson .
Bernard E. Boudreaux, Jr., Bauer, Darnall, McNulty & Boudreaux, Franklin, for appellees Joan Charpentier Czymyrid, Mrs. Marguerite Prescott Youngman, Anna Rochel Youngblood, Ernest L. Sansum, Rochelle Prescott, Anne Roussel Cunningham, Eleanor P. Smith, Mrs. C . C. McCutchon.
Frances Bernadette Rochel Delaune, in pro. per.
Charles F. Bailey, Bailey & Mouton, Lafayette, Wiley G. Lastrapes, New Orleans, William J. Conrad, New Orleans, for appellee Texaco, Inc., intervener.
Mrs. Betty Dodson Blanchard, Philip Harold Prescott, Mrs. Katherine Frances Dupuy, Shirley Devlin Bridges, James H. Roussel, Sedley H. Roussel Alpaugh, Marie H. Roussel, William D. Roussel, Jr. (Heirs of Louis B. Roussel), c/o James H. Roussel, Phelps, Dunbar, Marks, Claverie & Sims, New Orleans, in pro. per., interveners.
Before LANDRY, SARTAIN, ELLIS, BLANCHE and TUCKER, JJ.
The State and its mineral lessee, Gulf Oil Corporation (State-Gulf), appeal from judgment rejecting the State's petitory action to be declared owner of three parcels of land lying below the ordinary high water mark of Six Mile Lake adjacent to Sections 49, 50 and 68, Township 15 South, Range 11 East, St. Mary Parish, and also for an accounting of the proceeds of three oil wells drilled thereon by defendant, Placid Oil Company (Placid), designated as S. G. Todd Wells, 3, 4 and 5. The trial court based its decision upon finding that Six Mile Lake is a stream, the bed of which is owned by the State only to the ordinary low water mark (Louisiana Civil Code Article 455), and to which Louisiana Civil Code Article 509 applies, thereby making the alluvion involved the property of the riparian landowners.
In addition to Placid, J. Ray McDermott & Company, Inc. (McDermott), assignee of Placid, was also made defendant. 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 defendants by various supplemental and amending petitions filed by State-Gulf. Texaco, Inc. (Texaco), 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 regarding Section 68 have been compromised. All said parties have united in resisting the claims of State-Gulf. Some disputes exist among defendants regarding their ownership of subject sections. It was agreed by stipulation that all such controversies be relegated to future resolution among the parties concerned, should defendants as a class defeat the State's claim of ownership.
Sections 49, 50 and 68 all about the south shore of Six Mile Lake. It is conceded that the traverse line of these sections, as shown on the official plat of Township 15 South, Range 11 East, Louisiana Meridian, approved by the State Surveyor General May 19, 1842, constitutes the northern boundary of these sections. It is also acknowledged that the traverse line thus established is predicated upon a survey by A. L. Fields, in 1837, whose plat and field notes are of record in the archives of the Register of the State Land Office, a copy thereof being of record herein. Further conceded is the fact that Grand Lake-Six Mile Lake was a navigable body of water upon the State's admission to the Union in 1812.
The record establishes that when separated from the Federal Government by patents dated June 1, 1848, August 21, 1845, and January 1, 1849, Sections 49, 50 and 68 contained 172.87 acres, 447.58 acres, and 86.63 acres, respectively. It is conceded that upon trial of this matter in 1967, a vast amount of acreage had been added to Sections 49 and 50 in the form of alluvion that had built out northerly from the traverse line of those sections. As regards Section 68, it is conceded that the area in dispute, lying north of its traverse lines, is approximately three times the size of that section lying south of its traverse line.
State-Gulf contends the State Acquired title to the beds of all navigable waters in the state, whether lakes, rivers or streams, up to the ordinary high water mark, upon the State's admission to the Union in 1812. Defendants conceded the State's acquisition to the ordinary high water mark in the case of lakes. In the case of rivers and streams, defendants maintain the State acquired title to beds and bottoms only to the ordinary low water mark, and that the banks of rivers and streams, that is, the area lying between ordinary high water and ordinary low water marks, belongs to the riparian owners, together with all alluvial additions thereto.
Defendants assert title through the patentees of the respective sections. Placid and McDermott hold mineral leases from the patentees' successors in title and rely upon the validity of their lessors' titles. Alternatively, Placid asserts that if the State be declared owner of the property in dispute, Placid holds a valid lease thereon from the State dated February 24, 1960, bearing Lease Number 3643, covering Tract Number 7722. In this regard, Placid contends that the State's lease to Gulf, Number 2963, dated April 18, 1956, covering Tract Number 6453, does not include the property in controversy. Texaco is not concerned with this issue.
In proof of its case in chief, State-Gulf produced the official Township Plat of Section 15 South, Range 11 East, and Fields' supporting field notes. State-Rulf also produced the lease between themselves and the leases from defendants to Placid together with Placid's assignment to McDermott. In addition. State-Gulf offered testimony showing that the allegedly offensive wells are located north of the traverse line of Section 49, 50 and 68. State-Gulf also offered a stipulation showing the value of oil produced by Placid from subject tracts. By voluntary motion, State-Gulf dismissed its action against McDermott insofar as concerns their demand for an accounting of oil produced. It was further stipulated that Placid alone would be responsible for the value of minerals produced in the event State-Gulf prevailed herein.
After producing the foregoing proof in chief, State-Gulf rested its case contending that it thus made out a prima facie showing of its title and defendants' trespass, thereby shifting the burden to defendants to prove title from the State. In substance, State-Gulf argued that if defendants owned the disputed lands, they acquired title thereto from the State pursuant to state law which vests title to the banks of navigable rivers and streams and all alluvion which attaches thereto in the riparian owners. Therefore, State-Gulf contends it was incumbent upon defendants to defeat the State's title by showing that the areas in question were the banks of a river or stream or alluvion thereto attached. Alternatively, State-Gulf contended that if the State did not have title to the areas in dispute, the State's lease Number 2963 to Gulf, dated April 16, 1956, is nevertheless valid pursuant to Act 341 of 1952, LSA-R.S . 9:1151, which provides that where a change in ownership occurs as a result of the action of a navigable lake,...
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