West v. Bode

• Decision Date: 02 December 2020
• Docket Number: No. 2019-1494,2019-1494
• Citation: 165 N.E.3d 298,162 Ohio St.3d 293
• Parties: WEST et al., Appellees, v. BODE et al., Appellants.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

162 Ohio St.3d 293

165 N.E.3d 298

WEST et al., Appellees,

v.BODE et al., Appellants.

No. 2019-1494

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted July 8, 2020

Decided December 2, 2020

Yoss Law Office, L.L.C., and Ryan M. Regel, Woodsfield, for appellees.

Charles H. Bean, Saint Clairsville, for appellants.

Krugliak, Wilkins, Griffiths & Dougherty Co., L.P.A., Gregory W. Watts, and Matthew W. Onest, Canton, urging affirmance for amici curiae Cassandra Ridenour, Senterra, Ltd., David Cain, Julia Cain, Peppertree Farms, L.L.C., Paines Run, L.L.C., Paul E. Morrison, and Vesta G. Morrison.

Theisen Brock, L.P.A., and Daniel P. Corcoran, Marietta, urging affirmance for amici curiae Allen B. Miller, Matilda J. Miller, Craig M. Miller, Tina E. Miller, Brenda D. Thomas, Kevin M. Thomas, Kerry R. Hartline, Mary E. Hartline, Doris Craig, Paul Craig, Eleanor Craig, Nina Ice, Terry Ice, Sheila Stollar, Roger Stollar, Lisa Meyer, Kenneth Meyer Jr., Helen Craig, Evelyn Craig, Carissa R. Baker, Corey A. Stollar, Shelba Wills, Donald Carl Baker, Debra Kay Bowen, Ruth Ellen Workman, Donna J. Baker Hughes, Ronald Eugene Baker, Linda B. Wilcox, James D. Baker, Lana S. Baker, William Stevens, Danny Offenberger, Jeffrey Stevens, Ricky Allen Baker, Randy Lee Baker, Diana Bohn, Kathy Sue Rainer, Gary Dale Baker, Danny Ray Baker, and Shari Siddle.

Thomas A. Hill and Joseph N. Spano, urging affirmance for amicus curiae Eric Petroleum Corporation.

Jackson Kelly, P.L.L.C., Clay K. Keller, and Andrew N. Schock, Akron, urging reversal for amici curiae Ascent Resources-Utica, L.L.C., and Gulfport Energy Corporation.

French, J. {¶ 1} This appeal concerns the interplay between the Ohio Marketable Title Act, R.C. 5301.47 et seq., and the subsequently enacted Ohio Dormant Mineral Act, R.C. 5301.56, which is itself part of the Marketable Title Act. We specifically consider the continued viability of the Marketable Title Act as it relates to interests in oil and gas that have been severed from the interests in surface property. Appellants, John L. Christman, Katherine Haselberger, and Charlotte McCoy, as well as amici curiae Ascent Resources-Utica, L.L.C., and Gulfport Energy Corporation, urge this court to hold that the Dormant Mineral Act supersedes and controls over the original Marketable Title Act due to a conflict between the two acts.

{¶ 2} An express purpose of both the Marketable Title Act and the Dormant Mineral Act is to "simplify[ ] and facilitat[e] land title transactions by allowing persons to rely on a record chain of title." R.C. 5301.55. The acts operate in different ways to individually achieve that purpose. We acknowledge at the outset, however, the concerns expressed by amici curiae Ascent Resources-Utica, L.L.C., and Gulfport Energy Corporation that joint application of the acts to severed oil and gas interests brings about the unintended consequence of complicating determinations of ownership of those interests. But because we discern no irreconcilable conflict between the Dormant Mineral Act and the Marketable Title Act, we must apply them as the General Assembly wrote them—as independent, alternative statutory mechanisms that may be used to reunite severed mineral interests with the surface property subject to those interests.

Facts and procedural background

{¶ 3} As with most mineral-interest cases, this one presents facts that defy easy recitation.

{¶ 4} In 1902, George L. and Charlotte Parks sold to C.J. Bode and George T. Nalley one-half of the royalty interest in the oil and gas underlying about 66 acres of land in Monroe County (the "severed royalty interest"), as evidenced by a recorded sale of royalty. In 1916, through multiple recorded transactions, the severed royalty interest was transferred to E.J. Wichterman, Clara Thompson, and M.M. Mann.

{¶ 5} George Parks transferred the surface property to Lettie West in 1929 by way of a warranty deed that stated, "The one half royalty is reserved by grantor in aforesaid tracts as sold to C.J. Bode and George T. Nalley." Following Lettie West's death in 1959, the property was transferred to George E. West by way of a recorded certificate of transfer. The certificate of transfer confirmed that the property was the same as that conveyed in the 1929 deed to Lettie West, but it did not mention the severed royalty interest. In 1996, George E. West and his wife transferred the property—again defined as the same premises that George Parks conveyed to Lettie West in January 1929—to appellee Wayne West, subject to "all * * * reservations of record." In 2002, Wayne West and his wife conveyed a portion of the property to appellee Rusty West, "[s]ubject to all * * * reservations * * * of record."

{¶ 6} In February 2017, appellees Wayne and Rusty West ("the Wests") filed this action in the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas for a declaratory judgment that the Marketable Title Act had extinguished the severed royalty interest and had vested that previously severed interest in the Wests. They named as defendants Bode, Nalley, Thompson, Wichterman, Mann, and Mann's predecessor in interest, A.D. McVey, as well as their unknown heirs, devisees, executors, administrators, relicts, next of kin, and assigns. Service by publication was made on defendants, none of whom filed an answer.

{¶ 7} Appellants filed a motion to intervene and to file a counterclaim, which the trial court granted. Appellants claim they are the owners of a portion of the severed royalty interest. In their counterclaim, they seek a declaration that they are the owners of 1/16 of the royalty interest in oil and gas underlying the subject property, as well as an order quieting their title to that interest. Appellants' claimed interest stems from a 1944 auditor's deed that transferred 1/16 of the royalty interest in oil and gas underlying the subject property to Nova A. Christman. The auditor's deed identified the subject property and its owner, Lettie West, as well as the recorded 1902 sale of royalty interest from George L. and Charlotte Parks. Nova and Dollie W. Christman recorded a notice of claim of their interest in 1977, citing R.C. 5301.51 and 5301.52 —provisions of the Marketable Title Act that provide for preservation by notice. A certificate of transfer recorded with the Monroe County Recorder in 2007 establishes that Nova A. Christman's mineral interest had been conveyed to appellants upon his death.

{¶ 8} Appellants filed a motion for summary judgment in which they argued that the Wests had failed to state a valid claim under the Marketable Title Act, because the more specific provisions of the Dormant Mineral Act supersede the general provisions of the Marketable Title Act. The Wests responded by filing their own motion for summary judgment. They argued that the severed royalty interest had been extinguished by operation of law pursuant to the Marketable Title Act, in part because neither the Wests' 1959 root of title (that is, the transfer from Lettie West to George West) nor any recorded document transferring the surface property during the following 40 years mentioned the severed royalty interest.

{¶ 9} The trial court granted appellants' motion for summary judgment and declared them the owners of a 1/16 royalty interest in oil and gas underlying the subject property. It held that the Dormant Mineral Act irreconcilably conflicts with the general provisions of the Marketable Title Act and that the more specific Dormant Mineral Act controls.

{¶ 10} The Seventh District Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's judgment and remanded the case for the trial court to adjudicate the Wests' claim under the Marketable Title Act. 2019-Ohio-4092, 145 N.E.3d 1190, ¶ 63. It held that the Marketable Title Act and the Dormant Mineral Act "are co-extensive alternatives whose applicability in a particular case depends on the time passed and the nature of the items existing in the pertinent records." Id. at ¶ 47.

{¶ 11} This court accepted this discretionary appeal to decide whether the Dormant Mineral Act supersedes the Marketable Title Act with respect to severed mineral interests. See 157 Ohio St.3d 1535, 2020-Ohio-122, 137 N.E.3d 1196.

Analysis

R.C. 1.51

{¶ 12} The heart of appellants' position—that the Marketable Title Act does not apply to severed interests in oil and gas, because the more specific Dormant Mineral Act supersedes it—arises from R.C. 1.51, which sets out the familiar specific-over-general rule of statutory construction. R.C. 1.51 states:

If a general provision conflicts with a special or local provision, they shall be construed, if possible, so that effect is given to both. If the conflict between the provisions is irreconcilable, the special or local provision prevails as an exception to the general provision, unless the general provision is the later adoption and the manifest intent is that the general provision prevail.

{¶ 13} In other words, courts should construe conflicting statutes in a way that gives effect to both. Id. A specific statutory provision will prevail over a general one only when the provisions irreconcilably conflict. Gahanna-Jefferson Local School Dist. Bd. of Edn. v. Zaino , 93 Ohio St.3d 231, 234, 754 N.E.2d 789 (2001), citing United Tel. Co. of Ohio v. Limbach , 71 Ohio St.3d 369, 372, 643 N.E.2d 1129 (1994).

{¶ 14} The validity of appellants' argument depends, then, on the existence of an irreconcilable conflict between the Marketable Title Act and the Dormant Mineral Act. We examine each in turn.

The Marketable Title Act

{¶ 15} "The General Assembly enacted the Marketable Title Act, R.C. 5301.47 et seq., in 1961, Am.H.B. No. 81, 129 Ohio Laws 1040, to extinguish interests and claims in land that existed prior to the root of title, with ‘the legislative purpose of simplifying and facilitating land title transactions by allowing persons to rely on a record chain of title.’ " Corban v. Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C. , 149 Ohio St.3d 512, 2016-Ohio-5796, 76 N.E.3d 1089, ¶ 17, quoting R.C. 5301.55. The Marketable...