Appeals court agrees with mineral servitude judgment

NEW ORLEANS – A Sabine Parish property owner lost an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit related to a dispute over mineral rights.

Harold Temple filed suit against Marsha Paul McCall, Majorie Ryals Paul, Ned Walter Jenkins, III, David Paul Jenkins and Letha Taylor claiming that in 1969 his predecessor-in-interest was given mineral rights for the land through a credit deed. McCall and the other defendants, however, argued that the rights were not expressly noted in the deed and thus remained reserved.

The court agreed with McCall, noting that experts support McCall’s “common interpretation of such language in land-conveyance transactions.”

In a per curiam opinion, Circuit Judges Carolyn Dineen King, Patrick Higginbotham and Edith Brown Clement affirmed the district court’s summary judgment order.

Case No. 12-30661.