Aerial Sprayers, Inc. v. King

317 S.W.2d 602, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 2299
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 20, 1958
Docket6790
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 317 S.W.2d 602 (Aerial Sprayers, Inc. v. King) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aerial Sprayers, Inc. v. King, 317 S.W.2d 602, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 2299 (Tex. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

CHAPMAN, Justice. .

In order to correct a date we inadvertently used in our original opinion and to clarify our application of the law to the facts in one paragraph thereof, the original opinion of September 22 is withdrawn and the following is announced in lieu thereof.

This appeal is from an order of the court below denying a change of venue.

Raymond King, L. C. Rushin, Theo L. Lynch, and V. Cross, joined by their respective landlords, sued Aerial Sprayers, Inc., of Stamford, Texas, and Pitchfork Land and Cattle Company of Dickens County, Texas. Pitchfork Land and Cattle Co. made no effort to change venue and is not before us on appeal. Aerial Sprayers, Inc., sought a change of venue to Jones County, Texas, the undisputed county of its residence.

The cause of action alleged by the respective plaintiffs in each of the four suits being essentially the same the four cases were, by agreement of all parties, consolidated on the venue hearing.

As exceptions to the venue rule giving the right to be sued in the county of residence appellees are relying on Subdivision 9a (negligence of appellant in the county where the suit was filed that proximately resulted in the injuries) and 23 (suit against a private corporation in the county where the cause of action arose) of Article 1995, R.C.S. They also pleaded Subdivision 9 but did not urge it by brief.

Among the grounds of negligence urged by' appellee was that of improper mixing of the poison used, the spraying of a hormone herbicide at the time when the wind was blowing at such velocity as to permit the spray mist to drift onto their cotton six to eight miles away and failure to follow the prevailing customs of the industry in Aerial Spraying.

Testimony that is without contradiction, shows that on July 14 and 15, 1956, approximately 270 acres in King County, *604 Texas, on the Pitchfork Ranch was sprayed ,by airplane for the purpose of killing sun flowers and cockleburs; that shortly thereafter, the first date being August 1, farmers in the Finney Community of King County, six to eight miles northeast of where the spraying was done noticed something peculiar about the leaves, blooms and small bolls on their cotton that seemed to adversely affect its normal development and which it later developed was caused by some sort of chemical; on said dates of the spraying 52½ gallons of 2, 4-D, known as Esteron Ten-Ten, was furnished by Aerial Sprayers plus an undetermined amount of 2, 4-D called Weed-On furnished by Cecil Meador of the Spur Experiment Station, all of which was mixed with Diesel Oil to make four gallons of spray for each acre.

Though there is some testimony by an employee of the Pitchfork Ranch, Jim Plumphreys, that the condition of the affected cotton indicated a poison from 24S-T more than 245-D, there is ample testimony of probative value from Theo Lynch, A. A. Cox, J. L. Hill, and C. E. Bureson, if believed by the trial court, for it to find the damage was caused from 2, 4-D.

Introduced into evidence as part of the record in this case, without objections, was a label from Esteron Ten-Ten giving full directions and warning in the use of the chemical. _ The evidence indicates the amount or strength of the killing ingredients necessary to produce an effective kill depends in part on the state of growth of the vegetation, the type of plant to be destroyed, and the weather conditions at the time of application. It also shows that dosages as low as ⅛ pint per acre will kill- young, tender growth. Elbert Elliott testified if he was spraying, for heavily infested weeds he would use a pint to the acre of 2, 4-D. Additionally, the warning on the label introduced in evidence says, “Do not apply Esteron Ten-Ten directly to or otherwise permit it to come into contact with * * * ■ cotton or other desirable plants which aré sensitive to 2, 4-D and its formulations, and' do not permit spray mists containing it to drift onto them, since even minute quantities of the spray may cause injury during both growing and dormat periods.” The following warning on the label has dark- heavy print: “Accordingly, applications by airplane, ground rigs and hand dispensers should be carried out only when there is no hazard from drift. Do not apply by airplane in the vicinity of cotton, grapes or other desirable 2, 4-D' susceptible vegetation.”

The record is uncontradicted that Aerial Sprayers, Inc. was poisoning sun flowers and cockleburs, tough wooded plants, at a time of year when they would naturally be in an advanced state of growth, thus requiring heavier application of chemical than when young and tender. It is also in the record that the poisoning was done under the directions of the state Experiment Station at Spur, Texas, experts in the business of plant destruction by chemical application, and that it used 420 pints of Esteron Ten-Ten plus the amount of Weed-On brought by Cecil Meador. The nearest anyone came to testifying how much poison the Experiment Station brought of 2, 4-D was that “it was in S gallons cans.” The record also shows that Aerial Sprayers and their agents and employees knew there were cotton fields from six to eight miles from the location of their spraying activities and that they were fully conscious of the fact that 2, 4-D was harmful to growing cotton. From the record in this case the trial court had a right to take into consideration all these matters just mentioned in passing upon the killing strength of the ingredients used in determining whether the drift from the spray caused the damages to the cotton crops in question.

The velocity of the wind on July 14 and 15, 1956, and the distance the spray drifted on the occasion in question were highly controversial' questions. -Raymond King *605 testified that on the morning of July 15 about sunup the wind was blowing about 10 miles per hour, that he went to gather some roasting ears and when he got back the dust was blowing so badly he had to move into the house to shuck his corn. He testified that when he moved inside the house the wind was blowing 16, 17 or 18 miles an hour from the southwest, the direction that the Pitchfork Land upon which the spraying had been done was located. Over objections of appellant a chart from the U. S. Weather Bureau at Childress, Texas, was introduced in evidence showing that at 5:28 A.M., July 15, 1956, the wind was blowing from the’ southwest to the northeast at 15 knots per hour. This record is to a considerable extent corroborative of the King testimony. Elbert Elliott, who did the spraying for appellant testified they started the spraying on the morning of July 15 “sometime after six,” and that he put on three or four loads of 160 gallons each to finish the 270 acres they started on July 14 and had to quit on account of the velocity of the wind.

There is sufficient testimony of probative value for the trial court to find that the spraying of the Herbicide on the Pitchfork Ranch on July 14 and 15, 1956, was the only spraying done within that vicinity within the period of time to have caused the injury to the cotton in question.

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317 S.W.2d 602, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 2299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aerial-sprayers-inc-v-king-texapp-1958.