549 Biltex Enterprises, Inc v. Myers

Richard F. Brown

The following is not a legal opinion. You should consult your attorney if the case may be of significance to you.

Biltex Enterprises, Inc v. Myers held that a suit for lease termination was a title dispute and that attorney’s fees are not recoverable in trespass to try title. The parties aligned as Lessor and Lessee under a 1948 lease in a production-in-paying-quantities case. Lessor filed suit seeing a declaratory judgment that the lease had terminated. Lessee counterclaimed seeking a declaratory judgment that the lease was valid and asserted a suit to quiet title and pled for attorney’s fees. Lessor converted Lessor’s DEC action into trespass to try title. At trial the jury found that the well did not cease to produce in paying quantities. The trial court entered a take nothing judgment on Lessor’s trespass to try title claim and awarded Lessee its attorney’s fees.

There is no right to recover attorney’s fees in trespass to try title and there is a permissive right to recover attorney’s fees in a suit for declaratory relief. The court concluded that this case involved competing claims to the mineral estate and that every substantive issue was resolved by the jury’s determination that the well had not ceased to produce in paying quantities. . . .” Lessee was not entitled to recover attorney’s fees under the declaratory judgment act because the case did not involve the construction of the lease, but whether production had terminated.

The significance of this case is that when a claim concerns a title dispute or title determination, it is a trespass to try title action regardless of the form in which it is brought. A declaratory judgment action is appropriate for lease construction. If the claim concerns title determination, it is a trespass to try title action and attorney’s fees are not appropriate.