Mineral Servitudes; Partition; Louisiana Law

摘要

The Haas family liquidate two companies that owned property in Evangeline and Avoyelles Parishes, Louisiana. The Haas Land Company was liquidated in 1979 and the Haas Investment Company in 1983. The shareholders of each company, as of the dates of liquidation, become the owners of the land formerly owned by that company. While the ownership of the companies overlaps, it is not identical. In 1983, all of the owners executed a partition and exchange agreement with the intention that the Haas-Constant Group would receive certain properties or property interests, and the Mikell-Carruth Group would receive other properties and property interests, "in each case subject to complete mineral reservation." Mineral leases were granted by both Tiger Bend, Ltd., as surface owner, and the Mikell Group, which claims a mineral servitude by virtue of the partition. When a producing well was drilled on the Evangeline Parish property, Neumin Production Company and Guardian Oil & Gas, Inc. filed a concursus proceeding seeking to determine which group was entitled to receive royalties on production from the well. The Mikell Group contends that production from a well on the Avoyelles Parish portion of the property maintains their mineral servitude on all of the acreage.