McClung v. Atlas Oil Co.

Citations

• 148 La. 674
• 87 So. 515
• 1921 La. LEXIS 1327

Syllabus

<p>I. Parties <&wkey;6(I) — Owner of title can test adverse claim by others.</p> <p>A contract between an owner of mineral rights and an attorney construed, and held not only to give an interest in a contemplated lawsuit, but to be a present conveyance of a fixed individual interest, so that the attorney had a standing in court to test his title against oth'ers making a claim to the same thing; he having- a real interest to assert within Code Prae. art. 15.</p> <p>2. Vendor and purchaser <&wkey;23!(!6) — Sales; when owner of mineral rights after conveying interest therein attempted to transfer to another, latter was charged with record notice.</p> <p>Where an owner of mineral rights conveyed an interest therein, and thereafter attempted to transfer them to another either by original act or by ratification of previous leases which had expired before the conveyance, the latter transferee was necessarily charged with notice which the conveyance records furnished, and his rights, if any, became subordinate to those of the former grantee of an interest therein.</p> <p>3. Champerty and maintenance <&wkey;6 (2) — Litigious rights; pendency of suit necessary to make rights conferred “litigious.”</p> <p>Under Oiv. Code, art. 2653, defining a litigious right as one about which a suit exists, no right is litigious within article 2447, applying to attorneys and court officers, any more than within article 2652, applying to all other persons, unless a suit regarding it was then pending, no matter how apparently necessary such a suit may have been to enforce it, so that a present conveyance to an attorney of an interest in mineral rights in a tract, in consideration of his services to be rendered in actions to protect those rights, is not invalid as a conveyance of litigious rights.</p> <p>[Ed. Note. — For other definitions, see Words and Phrases, Litigious Right.]</p> <p>4. Attorney and client <&wkey; 180 — Recording a conveyance to attorney protects title without special notice