130 So. 2d 501 - Bailey v. Meadows’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 federal appellate · 21 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “failure to pay production royalties under an oil and gas lease, for any appreciable length of time, without justification, amounts to an active breach of such lease which entitles the lessor to a cancellation thereof without the necessity of placing the lessee in formal default.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 162 So. 2d 602 - Fawvor v. US Oil of Louisiana, Inc. · 140 So. 2d 19 - Pierce v. Atlantic Refining Company

2. “"`A Lessee must comply with his lease terms. Whether production payments are larger or smaller than "shut-in" payments, they must be paid on accurate computations and as such. Plaintiff had the right to be paid in accordance with the method provided by the terms of the lease—not at the whim or caprice of the defendant. Where the whim of defendant could or might affect a Lessor's rights under a lease, courts should always (as we are doing here) intervene to protect those rights.' (Emphasis partially supplied by this Court.) "Appellees contend the Melancon and Bollinger cases are clearly distinguishable from the instant case on the facts and the language used. We must confess the court said in the Melancon case that the facts therein justified finding a formal demand had been made `if it were necessary', but this was pure surplusage and dictum. We are also mindful that the court found the refusal to pay the royalties in the Melancon case was a part of an apparent scheme to pressure or force the lessors into signing a unitization agreement. However, such a finding by the court did not alter the clear and unmistakable principles of law enunciated in its opinion, from which we have extensively quoted. [Emphasis supplied by this court.] "We are, therefore, of the opinion that the Melancon and Bollinger cases have enunciated a general rule that failure to pay production royalties under an oil and gas lease, for any appreciable length of time, without justification, amounts to an act”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 140 So. 2d 19 - Pierce v. Atlantic Refining Company

3. “` In the case of royalty based on gas and oil production it is the accepted custom, as reflected by this very record, to make such payments on a monthly basis, computed on the amount of gas and oil sold or run into the line from the well. A justifiable cause for delay in such payments might arise when there is a reasonable dispute as to those entitled to receive the royalties, or the amount due each, but no such factual situation is here presented, and we agree with the trial judge that a delay of fifteen months for no valid reason is unjustifiable and violative of the terms of the contract. * * * * * * "` Defendant's contention that there was no "formal demand,”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 140 So. 2d 19 - Pierce v. Atlantic Refining Company