Union Producing Co. v. Placid Oil Co.
| Decision Date | 01 July 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 6408,6408 |
| Citation | 178 So.2d 392 |
| Parties | UNION PRODUCING COMPANY et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PLACID OIL COMPANY et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Ellender, Wright & Wurzlow, Houma, Jones, Walker, Waechter, Pointevent, Carrere & Denegre, New Orleans, John T. Guyton and Ray A. Barlow, of Hargrove, Guyton, Van Hook & Ramey, Shreveport, for appellants.
E. Harold Saer, Jr., of Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Burke, Toler & Hopkins, Donald W. Doyle, of Doyle, Smith & Doyle, New Orleans, Donald L. Peltier of Peltier & Peltier, Thibodaux, Armand Guiterrez, Shreveport, for appellees.
Before ELLIS, LOTTINGER, LANDRY, REID and BAILES, JJ.
Plaintiffs, Union Producing Company, hereinafter referred to as Union, and Texas Gulf Producing Company, hereinafter referred to as Gulf, were the owners in equal indivision of one certain gas, oil and mineral lease originally acquired by Union from the defendant, La-Terre Company, Inc., hereinafter referred to as La-Terre, covering 4,456.84 acres of land and included therein were certain lands situated in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana described as follows:
Section Description Acreage
------- -------------------------------- -------
Township 20 South, Range 17 East
--------------------------------
13 North 200 acres 200.00
Township 20 South, Range 18 East
--------------------------------
110 North 400 acres 400.00
There is an admitted overlap of the boundaries of Township 20 South, Range 17 East and Township 20 South, Range 18 East and consequently an overlap of the boundaries of Section 13, Township 20 South, Range 17 East and Section 110, Township 20 South, Range 18 East, brought about by different locations of the range line between Ranges 18 and 17 East pursuant to a government survey by Foster and Walker, Surveyors, in 1831 and approved April 5, 1832, by the Surveyor-General of Township 20 South, Range 18 East and a resurvey or recheck of the Foster and Walker survey by Gorlinski in 1855, approved in 1856, wherein he moved the range line as established by Foster and Walker approximately 27 chains farther west, and a partial survey of Township 20 South, Range 17 East by G. F. Connelly in 1837, approved in May of 1842, wherein he placed the east boundary or range line of Township 20 South, Range 17 East some 3000 feet farther to the east than the Gorlinski and Foster and Walker surveys, measured from the location of the range line at the northwest corner of Township 20, South Range 18 East.1
At this stage, we hereby attach and make a part of this opinion Plat A as attached to the brief of plaintiffs which clearly shows the three different locations of the range line as made by Foster and Walker, by G. F. Connelly of Township 20 South, Range 17 East and a resurvey of the Foster and Walker survey of Township 20 South, Range 18 East by Gorlinski.
NOTE: OPINION CONTAINS TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE
On March 30, 1960, Placid Oil Company, hereinafter referred to as Placid, acquired from La-Terre an oil and gas lease covering, among other lands, the follwing described land:
'Township 20 South, Range 17 East
Section 13, All except W/2 of SW/4, and also except the North 200 acres of said section which is presently covered by a mineral lease granted Union Producing Company, dated June 21, 1948, and recorded in Conveyance Book 164, Folio 251, Entry No. 76813, as supplemented by instrument of selection dated August 24, 1949, both of record in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana;
'Township 20 South, Range 18 East
Section 110, All, except the North 400 acres of said section which is presently covered by a mineral lease granted Union Producing Company, dated June 21, 1948, and recorded in Conveyance Book 164, Folio 251, Entry No. 76813, as supplemented by instrument of selection, dated August 24, 1949, both of record in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana.'
Due to the overlap of Section 13, Township 20 South, Range 17 East and of Section 110, Township 20 South, Range 18 East, a dispute arose between the interested parties as to the ground location of the property in Terrebonne Parish leased by La-Terre to Union and described as the North 200 acres of Section 13, Township 20 South, Range 17 East and the North 400 acres of Section 110, Township 20 South, Range 18 East. Union and Gulf contend that, regardless of the overlap, it is entitled to 600 acres, either from the North 1/2 of Sections 13 and 110 as a whole without regard to an overlap under the authority of holding of the Louisiana Supreme Court in Louisiana Furs, Inc. v. State, 191 La. 964, 186 So. 840,2 decided in 1939, or 200 acres in the North 1/2 of Section 13 and 400 acres in the North 1/2 of Section 110 after a determination by the Court of the common range line between the two sections which of course would be the range line between Township 20 South, Range 17 East and Township 20 South, Range 18 East, whereas Placid and La-Terre contend that no one has authority to change the range lines and that the North 200 acres of Section 13, Township 20 South, Range 17 East and the North 400 acres of Section 110, Township 20 South, Range 18 East must be located on the ground with full acceptance of the location of the range line between the two townships and sections in accordance with the resurvey by Gorlinski and Connelly. In other words, it is their contention that location of the North 20 acres of Section 13, although it would overlap into the North 400 acres of Section 110 so that there would be 130 acres common to Sections 13 and 110 included in the description which of course would result in Union and Gulf receiving 130 acres less than the 600 acres called for by the description in their lease, must be made as if the overlap did not exist which would decrease plaintiffs-appellants' acreage by approximately 130 acres. The main question which must be answered is the ground location of the south boundary of Union and Gulf which would be the north boundary of Placid under the terms of its lease from La-Terre.
Because of the difference between the parties as briefly outlined above, plaintiffs have proceeded under the authority of the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, LSA-R.S. 13:4231--13:4246, and seek a judgment determinative of the ground location of the property hereinabove described as being covered in the lease from La-Terre to Union. After a trial on the merits which necessitated the introudction of the testimony of a number of witnesses and scores of exhibits, the District Court fixed the ground location of the North 200 acres of Section 13, Township 20 South, Range 17 East and the North 400 acres of Section 110, Township 20 South, Range 18 East as contended by the defendants-appellees, Placid and La-Terre. The lower court recognized the east boundary of Township 20 South, Range 17 East as fixed by G. F. Connelly in 1837 and the west boundary of Township 20 South, Range 18 East as located by the resurvey of Gorlinski, approved in 1856, of the Foster and Walker survey made in 1831 and approved in 1832. Of course, each of these lines, i.e., the Connelly line which purportedly established the east boundary of Township 20 South, Range 17 East, would ordinarily be considered as also the west boundary of Township 20 South, Range 18 East. This purported range line by Connelly is located more than 3000 feet east of the line which Gorlinski established by his survey of the Foster and Walker survey as being the west boundary of Township 20 South, Range 18 East and which would be ordinarily the east boundary of Township 20 South, Range 17 East. In other words, we have three different locations of the range lines which affected Section 13 and Section 110 and caused the lines of these sections to overlap with a common acreage of approximately 130 acres. For better understanding of the contention of defendants-appellees and the decision of the lower court which approved of their ground location of the North 200 acres of Section 13 and the North 400 acres of Section 110, we annex a copy of defendants' Exhibit 61 as attached to their brief which is a map showing in part their contention and the holding of the court which accepts the range line as surveyed by Connelly as being the east boundary of Section 13, Township 20 South, Range 17 East and the range line established by the resurvey made by Gorlinski as being the west boundary of Section 110 Township 20 South, Range 18 East. Plaintiffs have appealed from this judgment.
A more detailed discussion of the facts is necessary to a decision in this case. On June 21, 1948, La-Terre, as lessor granted to Union, as lessee, an oil, gas and mineral lease covering and affecting approximately 18,056 acres of land situated in Terrebonne and in Lafourche Parishes, Louisiana. The lands situated in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, involved in this suit were described in said lease as follows:
"Section Description Acreage
-------- -------------------------------- -------
* * *
Township 20 South, Range 17 East
--------------------------------
13 All except W1/2 of SW1/4 560.00
* * *
Township 20 South, Range 18 East
--------------------------------
110 All 612.84"
On January 4, 1949, recorded on January 31, 1949, in the conveyance records of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, it was agreed by and between La-Terre and Union that Paragraph 4 of the La-terre--Union lease be amended so as to extend for a period of ten weeks from and after June 21, 1949 or until August 30, 1949, the time within which Union had to elect whether it would make a selection or...
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