Waterfowl Ltd. Liability Co. v. United States

JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

The United States appeals a judgment that its mineral royalty, attached to mineral servitudes on the relevant land, had (except for a forty-one acre tract) prescribed in accordance with Louisiana law because of the lack of qualifying production for a period in excess of ten years. We reverse and remand.

I

A

In 1937, acting under the authority of the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 715 et seq., the United States purchased approximately 13,000 acres of land in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, from plaintiff Lacassane Co., Inc. (“Lacassane”), to be included in…