Court Opinion

ID: 9454457
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:46:51.526943+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:07.335352
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
The motion to substitute James P. Wood as Administrator for A. E. Wood, deceased Appellant, is granted.
There is no substance in the contention that this Court has reversed or overruled its earlier decision reported in 362 F.2d 354. There it was held that the pendency of an interpleader action in a state court did not require or permit dismissal of the diversity action in federal court. The present holding is that the federal district court lacked jurisdiction because the matter in controversy did not exceed $10,000.00.
The actual damages sought to be recovered were only $1,000.00. The petitioner does not contest our holding that punitive damages are not recoverable for breach of contract whatever may be the motive or intent of the debtor. His argument is that it is possible for the claim to be established that the defendants converted to their own use crude oil of the value of $1,000.00, the property of the plaintiff, and that punitive damages may be recovered because of that conversion.
In the interpleader action the Supreme Court of Alabama had held that the right of ownership of the oil, general or special, and possession or the immediate right of possession “must concur in the plaintiff at the time of the conversion, or the action will not lie.” Wood v. CitronelleMobile Gathering System Co., 1966, 279 Ala. 662, 189 So.2d 346, 348-349. The same case had further held that, under unit operation, “the owner of the oil interest shall receive his pro rata share of the proceeds from the pool and bear his pro rata share of the expenses of production.” 189 So.2d at 347. The oil under Wood's .27 acre had been mixed with oil under the remaining 40 acre unit and Wood was entitled only to his pro rata share of the net proceeds from the pool. No material change occurs because of Wood’s right to provide storage facilities and to elect to receive oil in kind at the well head. No claim has ever been made that such an unlikely event occurred. *371Unless and until it did, and Wood had actual possession or the right of possession of a specific part of the fungible pool of oil, the action of trover or eon-version would not lie. In short, Wood failed to sustain his burden of establishing that the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $10,000.00. The petition for rehearing is therefore denied.
ON PETITION FOR REHEARING AND PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC
The Supplemental Petition for Rehearing is denied and no member of this panel nor Judge in regular active service on the Court having requested that the Court be polled on rehearing en banc, (Rule 35 Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure; Local Fifth Circuit Rule 12) the Petition for Rehearing En Banc is denied.