State v. Sneed

• Decision Date: 13 July 1944
• Docket Number: No. 11641.,11641.
• Citation: 181 S.W.2d 983
• Parties: STATE v. SNEED et al.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

181 S.W.2d 983

STATE v. SNEED et al.

No. 11641.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Galveston.

July 13, 1944.

Rehearing Denied August 3, 1944.

Appeal from District Court, Brazoria County; M. S. Munson, Judge.

Trespass to try title by the State of Texas against Gilbert Sneed and others. From a judgment for defendants, the plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

Grover Sellers, Atty. Gen., and Fagan Dickson and Gaynor Kendall, Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellant.

Tarlton Morrow and Vinson, Elkins, Weems & Francis, all of Houston, for appellee Gilbert Sneed and others.

Myron A. Smith and Smith & Smith, all of Fort Worth, for appellee Southland Royalty Co.

R. E. Seagler and Ralph B. Lee, both of Houston (Rex G. Baker, of Houston, of counsel), for appellee Humble Oil & Refining Co.

Turner, Rodgers & Winn, Carlton R. Winn, and George S. Terry, all of Dallas (Donald Campbell and L. A. Thompson, both of Tulsa, Okl., of counsel), for appellee Stanolind Oil & Gas Co.

Baker, Botts, Andrews & Wharton, of Houston, for appellee Pan American Production Co.

MONTEITH, Chief Justice.

This suit was brought by the State of Texas in statutory form of trespass to try title for the recovery of 15.1 acres of unsurveyed school land located in what is known as the Hastings Oil Field in Brazoria County, Texas, from a number of defendants, including the original patentees from the State and lessees and royalty owners holding under them, and the purchasers of oil produced from said land.

All defendants answered by pleas of not guilty and general denials and by special pleas that the State's suit was barred by the one-year statute of limitation, Article 5329, Section 4, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes. Certain of the appellees as subsequent purchasers pled that they were innocent purchasers of interests in the land in controversy for value without notice of the State's claim thereto.

In a trial before the court without a jury the appellees' contentions were sustained and judgment was rendered denying the State any recovery save and except the 1/16 royalty reserved to the State in the original patent.

The State's suit is exclusively an action in trespass to try title. No equitable grounds for cancellation of the patent to the land in controversy are pled and, although some of the appellees are subsequent purchasers, there are no allegations or proof in the record that they were in any wise actually acquainted with any invalidity in the transaction or in respect to the relation of the land to a producing well at the time the sale was made or the patent issued.

The material facts in the record are undisputed. The 15.1 acres of land involved in the suit was a part of a vacancy which lay between the west line of A. C. H. & B. Survey No. 2 and the Brazoria County line. The land, with other property was conveyed to H. G. and Gilbert Sneed by J. W. Surface on February 1, 1929, as a part of said A. C. H. & B. Survey No. 2, for a consideration of $25 per acre. It was considered by all interested parties to be part of said survey. It was entirely enclosed by a fence at the time of its purchase and has been continuously enclosed by fences and used and occupied by the Sneeds and their cotenants since that time.

On July 19, 1935, the Sneeds filed their application for a survey to purchase the 15.1 acres of land involved herein in accordance with Sections 5 and 6 of the Act of 1931, Chapter 271, of the General Laws of the Regular Session of the 42d Legislature, commonly known as House Bill 358, now Article 5421c, §§ 5, 6, Vernon's Annotated Texas Civil Statutes. On July 19, 1935, the county surveyor of Brazoria county issued and served his citations as provided for in Section 6 of said Act. On August 3, 1935, said county surveyor of Brazoria County made a survey of said land and on August 12, 1935, he filed the field notes so made in his records. They were subsequently incorporated in the patent issued by the State to the Sneeds. On August 14, 1935, the Sneeds filed their application to purchase said land in the General Land Office. The application was accompanied by all papers necessary under the Act. On November 22, 1935, the 15.1 acres of land in controversy was awarded to the Sneeds at a price of $25 per acre. The full consideration was paid by them to the State, and on November 29, 1935, patent was issued by the State of Texas to the Sneeds. The patent recites that the sale was made pursuant to Section 5 of the 1931 Act. It is regular on its face and shows no infirmity antedating its issuance.

Certain appellees, including Stanolind Oil & Gas Company, have purchased interests in said land for valuable considerations. Immediately after their purchase of a lease on said land from the Sneeds the Stanolind began the development thereof and shortly thereafter began the production of oil therefrom. It has continuously since that time paid to the Commissioner of the General Land Office 1/16 of the gross value of oil produced therefrom as a royalty.

The Act of 1931, now said Article 5421c, was approved May 29, 1931, and became effective Aug. 21, 1931. The material provisions of said Act are:

"Section 1. All lands heretofore set apart to the public free school funds under the Constitution and laws of Texas, and all of the unappropriated and unsold public domain remaining in this State of whatever character * * * are subject to control and sale under the provisions of this Act.

* * * * *

"Section 3. * * * Unsurveyed land is defined to be all areas not included in surveys on file in the General Land Office or surveys delineated on maps thereof.

"Section 4. All lands shall be sold without condition of settlement and with a reservation of one-sixteenth (1/16) of all minerals, as a free Royalty to the State, which two conditions shall be expressed in the application to purchase and in the notice of award, the minimum price to be fixed by the Commissioner and in no case to be less than one dollar ($1) an acre. * * *

"Section 5. * * * In all cases where a tract of school land has been occupied by mistake as a part of another tract, such occupant shall have a preference right for a period of six months after discovery of the mistake, or after passage of this Act, to purchase the land at the same price contracted to be paid for the land actually conveyed to him.

"Section 6. Anyone desiring to buy any of the unsurveyed land included in this Act not situated within five miles of a producing oil and gas well shall file with the county surveyor of the county in which the land may be situated, an application for survey describing the land in such manner as will enable the surveyor to identify it and pay the surveyor a fee of one dollar ($1) for filing and recording said application and also deposit with him such sum of money as will pay for citing the claimant or claimants of the land, if any, and the adjoining owners as the tax rolls may disclose the name of such claimants or adjoining owners. The surveyor using the forms prescribed by the General Land Office, shall immediately send by registered mail or hand to each claimant or adjoining owner a citation containing a description of the land sought to be surveyed and fix the date for survey. The survey shall be made and the field notes filed in the Land Office within one hundred and twenty (120) days from the filing of the application with the surveyor. If the area is found by the Commissioner to be unsurveyed and subject to sale, he shall value the land and give notice of the valuation to the applicant, who may purchase the land on the same terms and conditions as prescribed by the law and the regulations for the sale of surveyed land. * * *

"Section 8. * * * All unsold public free school land, both surveyed and unsurveyed, shall be subject to lease by the Commissioner to any person, firm or corporation for the production of minerals * * *.

"Any person who discovers an unsurveyed area of school land which has not been listed on the records of the Land Office as school land, and is not in actual conflict on the ground with land previously sold or appropriated and which appears on the official Land Office map as unsurveyed land, may apply in writing to the county surveyor and have same surveyed, and after the field notes thereof have been returned to the Land Office and approved and filed with the Land Commissioner, shall have a preference right for sixty (60) days thereafter to purchase a mineral lease thereon at the minimum price fixed by the Land Commissioner, in addition to the other consideration provided herein."

It was stipulated by the parties that the land in controversy was, at the time said patent was issued and at all times since, within five miles of a well producing oil in commercial quantities. There is no evidence in the record, however, as to whether or not an investigation of this fact was made by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, or whether the fact was known to the applicants or to any of the purchasers under them.

The Commissioner of the General Land Office testified that shortly after the 1931 Act became effective one M. T. Cole had filed an application in the General Land Office for survey and field notes to purchase a tract of 26 acres of land in Gregg County, Texas, under the provisions of Section 5 of said 1931 Act, and that, acting in accordance with the authority granted him under Article 5405, Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes, which provides that, "Should it appear to the Commissioner from the records of his office or from information on oath given him that there is some illegality in the claim, he shall, if he deems it necessary, refer the matter to the Attorney General, whose written decision shall be sufficient authority for him to issue or withhold the patent", he had written to the Assistant Attorney General of the State of Texas and had, in answer to said communication, been advised by him, through a written decision, that M. T. Cole had a right to buy said...