Louisiana Land & Exploration Co. v. Amoco Production Co.

REAVLEY, Circuit Judge:

This case has a long and tortuous history and is now before this court for the third time in ten years. The plaintiff-appellant, Louisiana Land & Exploration Company (LL & E) has owned lands in the Bastían Bay natural gas field in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, since the 1920s. In 1955 and 1959, LL & E executed mineral leases in the Bastían Bay field to Pan American Petroleum Corp., the predecessor to the defendant-appellee Amoco Production Company (Amoco). The leases required Amoco to pay LL & E a gas royalty measured by a percentage (27V2 or 30 percent) of the value…