Town of Maysville, Okl. v. Magnolia Petroleum Co.

• Decision Date: 06 November 1959
• Docket Number: No. 6100.,6100.
• Citation: 272 F.2d 806
• Parties: TOWN OF MAYSVILLE, OKLAHOMA, a municipal corporation, Appellant, v. MAGNOLIA PETROLEUM COMPANY, a Texas corporation, Pan American Petroleum Corporation, a Delaware corporation, Blackwell Zinc Company, Inc., a New York corporation, Climax Molybdenum Company, a Delaware corporation, Maracaibo Oil Exploration Corporation, a Delaware corporation, Ardie Oil & Gas Company, an Oklahoma corporation, Continental Land & Fur Company, a Delaware corporation, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company, a Kansas corporation, W. A. Balentine, J. M. McDaniel, H. E. Ledbetter, Hugh Ledbetter, G. A. Brown, E. M. Young, L. A. Nordan, J. M. Flaitz, R. B. Mitchell, Lona Gardner, Eugene Leach, Ruby Leach, Lula Henderson, Chris Sterr, C. Radden, Overa Radden, Etta Mae Ivey, Paul Christ, T. M. Ridgeway, D. C. Ridgeway, Roy Barrett, Jewel R. Burrow, J. C. Thompson, William Rayburn Amos, T. G. Mays, Raymond Dills and Earl Sparks, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

272 F.2d 806 (1959)

TOWN OF MAYSVILLE, OKLAHOMA, a municipal corporation, Appellant, v. MAGNOLIA PETROLEUM COMPANY, a Texas corporation, Pan American Petroleum Corporation, a Delaware corporation, Blackwell Zinc Company, Inc., a New York corporation, Climax Molybdenum Company, a Delaware corporation, Maracaibo Oil Exploration Corporation, a Delaware corporation, Ardie Oil & Gas Company, an Oklahoma corporation, Continental Land & Fur Company, a Delaware corporation, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company, a Kansas corporation, W. A. Balentine, J. M. McDaniel, H. E. Ledbetter, Hugh Ledbetter, G. A. Brown, E. M. Young, L. A. Nordan, J. M. Flaitz, R. B. Mitchell, Lona Gardner, Eugene Leach, Ruby Leach, Lula Henderson, Chris Sterr, C. Radden, Overa Radden, Etta Mae Ivey, Paul Christ, T. M. Ridgeway, D. C. Ridgeway, Roy Barrett, Jewel R. Burrow, J. C. Thompson, William Rayburn Amos, T. G. Mays, Raymond Dills and Earl Sparks, Appellees.

No. 6100.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

November 6, 1959.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Barth P. Walker, Oklahoma City, Okl. (Loyd Benefield and Howard C. Johnson, Oklahoma City, Okl., on the brief), for appellant.

Fisher Ames, Oklahoma City, Okl. (Robert W. Richards, Norton Standeven, Roy C. Lytle, D. C. Johnston, Oklahoma City, Okl., Jack H. Smith, Ardmore, Okl., on the brief), for appellees.

Before MURRAH, Chief Judge, and HUXMAN and PICKETT, Circuit Judges.

MURRAH, Chief Judge.

Like Chickasha Cotton Oil Co. v. Town of Maysville, 10 Cir., 249 F.2d 542, this quiet title action by the Town of Maysville involves the title to a segment of railroad right-of-way under Section 14 of the Act of April 26, 1906, 34 Stat. 137, 142, which provides in substance and effect that a railroad, having acquired its right-of-way over Indian tribal land pursuant to Section 13 of the Act of February 28, 1902, 32 Stat. 43, 47, should have the right to purchase fee title thereto, at a valuation to be determined by the Secretary of the Interior. And, in the event the railroad should not make the purchase payment within the time prescribed by the regulations (i. e. June 30, 1909), "or should cease to use the right-of-way, title thereto should vest in the owner of the legal subdivision, of which the right-of-way was a part" except lands "within a municipality, the title to which upon abandonment shall vest in such municipality." And see also St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co. v. Town of Frances, 10 Cir., 249 F.2d 546.

The railroad abandoned its right to acquire fee title to the right-of-way in accordance with applicable regulations and claims no interest therein except as an easement for railroad purposes. It follows, therefore, that by operation of Section 14, supra, fee title to the right-of-way vested in the abutting property owners on June 30, 1909, unless on that critical date it was "within a municipality", and if so, fee title thereupon vested in the municipality. When the right-of-way became valuable for oil and gas, the Town of Maysville brought this suit, alleging that it became a duly incorporated town on or about February 17, 1906, and that the petition for and order of incorporation included, among other lands, the right-of-way involved here; and that the railroad, not having acquired the fee title to the right-of-way in pursuance of Section 14, supra, the lands vested in the Town of Maysville as within a municipality, subject only to the right of the railroad to use the surface for railroad purposes. It was alleged that the named defendants claimed some interest in the oil and gas and other minerals which might be produced from the property, and that the said claims constituted a cloud on the plaintiff's title. The defendants answered severally, setting out their respective interest in and to the lands and the minerals thereunder, and at least one defendant specifically alleged that the purported incorporation of the Town of Maysville was void because there was no hearing on the petition to incorporate on the date fixed therefor, and the order of incorporation was not signed by the judge of the court having jurisdiction of the proceedings as required by law; and that judicial recognition of the purported proceedings to incorporate would constitute the taking of property of the defendants and their predecessors without due process of law.

And, moreover, it is alleged that at the time of the filing of the petition for incorporation, the tract of land traversed by the railroad right-of-way involved here (NE ¼ of SW ¼, Sec. 15, Twp. 4, R. 2W, Garvin County, Oklahoma) was unplatted agricultural land and not a part of any existing town; that if Section 14 be construed to permit an existing town to include such lands in an incorporation under Chapter 29 of the Mansfield Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas, the said Statute is unconstitutional as an attemped delegation of legislative power to the judiciary. And finally, it is alleged alternatively that the forty-acre tract of land traversed by the railroad was never a part of the Town of Maysville or other municipality, had never been dedicated or platted by any of its owners, and the Town of Maysville has never exercised or attempted to exercise any dominion over it; that no municipal taxes have ever been levied or assessed against it, and therefore insofar as this tract of land is concerned, the Town of Maysville does not exist, either as a de jure or de facto municipal corporation or municipality; that on two occasions the Town has actually annexed portions of the land described in the purported order of incorporation, and by all of these acts has abandoned and is therefore estopped to claim that the said tract of land is a part of the Town of Maysville. The parties agree that the questions are controlled by federal law (Section 14 of the Act of April 26, 1906) and that the requisite amount in controversy is present.

Based on stipulated facts, the trial court concluded that the land in question is not now and never has been within a municipality within the meaning and intent of Section 14, and consequently the plaintiff is not the owner of any interest in the right-of-way involved. In so concluding, the court was careful to distinguish its decision in Chickasha Cotton Oil Co. v. Town of Maysville, supra, on the grounds that in that case, both the trial court and the Court of Appeals had "studiously avoided placing its stamp of approval upon the `purported' incorporation of the Town of Maysville." The court took the view that its decision and that of the Court of Appeals in the former case was based upon the fact of an existing town or municipality actually traversed by the railroad, and that the numerous property owners involved in the said action were not in a position to contend that there was no municipality actually functioning as such; whereas in the present case under the admitted facts, the Town of Maysville is not in a position to contend that the right-of-way involved is within a municipality. We agree with the trial court that if the corporate existence of the Town of Maysville was directly challenged in the former case, it was not directly decided. In any event, it is directly tendered here under different facts between different parties, and we have the duty then to consider the matter anew.

Section 14 of the Act of April 26, 1906, supra, contemplated a municipality organized in accordance with Section 14 of the Act of June 28, 1898, 30 Stat. 495, 499, which provides in material part: "That the inhabitants of any city or town in said Territory having two hundred or more residents therein may proceed, by petition to the United States court in the district in which such city or town is located, to have the same incorporated as provided in chapter twenty-nine of Mansfield's Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas, if not already incorporated thereunder * * * and such city or town government, when so authorized and organized, shall possess all the powers and exercise all the rights of similar municipalities in said State of Arkansas. * * *."

Section 785 of Chapter 29, Mansfield's Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas, provides in material part that "When the inhabitants of a part of any county, not embraced within the limits of any city or incorporated town, shall desire to be organized into a city or town, they may apply by petition, in writing, signed by the inhabitants so applying, to be in number not less than twenty qualified voters, to the county court of the proper county, which petition shall describe the territory proposed to be embraced in such incorporated town, and have annexed thereto an accurate map or plat thereof; shall state the name proposed for such incorporated town, and shall also name the person or persons authorized to act in behalf of the petitioners in prosecuting said petition." Section 787 of the same Statute provides in material part that "If the county court shall be satisfied, after hearing such petition, that at least twenty qualified voters reside therein, or within the limits described by said petition, and that said petition has been signed by them; that said limits have been accurately described, and an accurate map or plat thereof made and filed; that the name proposed for the said town is proper and sufficient to distinguish it from others of like kind in the state, and it shall, moreover be deemed right and proper, in the judgment and discretion of the court, that said petition shall be granted, then it shall make out and indorse on said petition an order, to the effect that the incorporated town as named and described in the petition may be organized, which order said court shall sign and deliver, together with the petition and the map or plat, to the recorder of the county, whose duty it shall be to record the same as soon as may be in the proper book of records * * *."

It is agreed that the petition for incorporation, properly executed, together with the required map,...