By Tom Kelly
Editor and Publisher

(With reporting by Mary K. Hamner, Journal Correspondent)

The rights to mineral revenues on up to 1,000 acres of Bienville Parish land ride on a court decision that appears headed for review by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Shreveport.

The motion was filed July 20 in Second Judicial Court at Arcadia for appeal of a judgement handed down on June 25 by District Judge Glen Fallin. The motion awaits a hearing and signature by Judge Fallin, who is expected to authorize the appeal.

The lawsuit involves disputed mineral rights on tracts in an original transfer of 8,673 acres of land in Bienville Parish sold nearly 40 years ago by The Pardee Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Willamette Industries. Through the years a number of tracts from the Pardee-to-Willamette sale were resold by Willamette in separate acts of sale to several current corporate and individual owners. During the years following, oil and gas explorations were made by Pardee and others on their behalf, several of which resulted in successful mineral production.

At dispute in a complicated lawsuit originating in the District Court in Arcadia are the current status of mineral rights, both on currently producing property, and on rights to future production within the area of the original Pardee tracts sold to Willamette. In the original sale to Willamette made in December, 1971, Pardee retained mineral rights, which under Louisiana mineral law continues for ten years, or until production is established in which case the rights continue. The mineral right, called the "servitude," can be extended for additional ten-year terms if the owner of the servitude engages in good-faith exploration to produce minerals--whether minerals are discovered or not.

A critical issue in the combination of suits involving the original Pardee holding is whether Pardee Company did everything required to maintain the mineral rights on tracts now owned by Martin Timber Co., and other individual owners, prior to expiration of the ten-year servitudes retained by Pardee in the sale to Willamette.

A group of plaintiffs collectively called "The Indigo Group," maintains that the Pardee servitude expired "no later than December 21, 1999," on portions of the Martin and other properties, and requested an order for a legal release, for the disavowal of a lease made by Pardee to El Paso E&P Company, and reimbursement of revenues from production since December 21, 1999, as well as other legal relief.

Indigo Minerals LLC, a corporate entity created by Martin Timber Company, along with Crabapple Properties, Ltd., of Baton Rouge, and 33 other individual Bienville Parish landowners, are the plaintiffs against the Pardee interests, which include Pardee Minerals LLC, El Paso E&P Company, Milagro Development, and Ceniarth Ltd., leasing, exploration, and production companies.

In his final judgment rendered in June, Judge Fallin ruled in favor of the Pardee interests, and against The Indigo Group.

Judge Fallin's finding stated that operations in drilling the H.E. Sutton-Pardee No. 1 well in Section 34-Twp15N-R8W; the Kerr-McGee Corp.-Blackwood Land Co. No. 1 well in Section 34-Twp15N-R8W; and the Famcor Oil Co. No. 1 Pardee in Section 35-Twp15N-R8W were each good-faith operations for discovery and production of minerals, and thus each well interrupted the running of the 10-year prescription of non-use of servitude, thereby continuing the servitude rights of the Pardee interests.

The motion for appeal is filed as Indigo Minerals LLC et al vs. Pardee Minerals LLC et al. (The legal Latin "et al" translates as "and others.")

What issues will be offered on appeal is not known, since attorneys contacted by The Piney Woods Journal either declined to comment, or did not return phone calls.

In an earlier filing in the series of suits which have gone on over the past two years, the Indigo Minerals-Martin Timber Company group made two points: first, that the former Willamette land now owned by Martin Timber Co., being separate from the other Willamette land, constitutes a separate mineral servitude from that reserved in the Pardee deed; and second, that test wells drilled on the Martin property under the Pardee servitude failed to meet the "good faith" requirement for maintaining servitude because they were abandoned after drilling to depths far less than the known depth of formations known contain minerals in other locations. These claims were overruled in the judgment issued last month by Judge Fallin after a trial.

Several other issues are involved between all the parties in the very complicated set of suits all of which fill four storage boxes in the Bienville Parish Clerk of Court's office.

The current suits involve only issues affecting the Pardee sale to Willamette in Bienville Parish. The deed noted that Pardee was executing similar acts of sale to Willamette in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Claiborne, Evangeline, Natchitoches, Ouachita, Rapides, St. Landry, Tensas, Vernon, Webster, and Winn, "all of which constitute but one conveyance for which a good and valuable consideration has been paid, the receipt and sufficiency of which is acknowledged by the vendor," an often-used legal acknowledgment of payment without revealing the amount.

Willamette Industries, whose headquarters was in Portland, Oregon, managed forest lands in Louisiana and several other states, along with lumber and other building materials manufacturing facilities. In 2002 Willamette sold to Weyerhaeuser Company, a Federal Way, Washington based multi-national company, which continues to manage the forestlands and manufacturing operations.

None of the other Louisiana lands formerly owned by Willamette are involved in the Bienville Parish lawsuits.

Status of servitude ownership and terms of leasing have have become important issues for all landowners in the region, with the Haynesville Shale gas discovery in East Texas and Northwest Louisiana. Current leasing interest for that action runs very high in Bienville Parish as well. Several Bienville Parish landowners not involved in the Pardee-Indigo dispute have executed very lucrative leases since the Haynesville burst onto the scene in 2008. Also, exploration and production in other nearby fields in Jackson, Lincoln, and Bienville parishes continues to attract a growing array of support industries, including pipeline construction, underground storage development, drilling, and well servicing and supply companies in and around Arcadia and other parts of North Louisiana.

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