Allied Hotels, Ltd. v. Barden

1964 OK 16, 389 P.2d 968, 1964 Okla. LEXIS 273
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 28, 1964
Docket40347
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 1964 OK 16 (Allied Hotels, Ltd. v. Barden) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allied Hotels, Ltd. v. Barden, 1964 OK 16, 389 P.2d 968, 1964 Okla. LEXIS 273 (Okla. 1964).

Opinion

HALLEY, Vice Chief Justice.

Iris Barden, hereafter called plaintiff, commenced this action against (1) Allied Hotels, Ltd., a partnership consisting of Sylvannus G. Felix, Anthony A. Marneres and Eugene Jordan, hereafter called Allied, (2) H & J Construction Company, Inc., a corporation, and (3) Concho Construction Company, Inc., a corporation, for damages to her real property caused during and after construction of the Ramada Inn Motel in Oklahoma City in 1959.

The plaintiff for approximately twelve years prior to 1959 had owned a tract of approximately four and one-half acres bounded on the east by what is now the Cowboy Hall of Fame, on the west by what is now the Ramada Inn Motel, on the south by the Northeast Expressway and on the north by Northeast 63rd Street. Her property was improved by a frame house with asbestos siding, a garage-basement, a concrete swimming pool, a cement walk, and a gravel driveway. The grounds had many trees, shrubs, flowers and grass.

Allied acquired the land to the west of plaintiff’s property and contracted with H & J Construction Company to build a large motel thereon. H & J Construction Company contracted with Concho Construction Company to perform certain blasting and dirt moving operations. Plaintiff’s property is located downhill from the Allied property, which was virgin land covered by native grass, brush and boulders. During construction plaintiff’s property •sustained damage from vibration caused by blasting and damage from increased flow ■of water from the construction site. After construction was completed, plaintiff testified that she still receives certain damage from the increased flow of water from the motel property.

At the close of her evidence, the plaintiff dismissed her action against Concho Construction Company while reserving the right to proceed against the remaining defendants. However, H & J Construction Company demurred to plaintiff’s evidence and the demurrer was sustained. The jury was then told by the trial court that the only defendant left in the case was Allied. The jury was also told that none of the issues pertaining to Concho or H & J were to be considered by the jury.

Allied presented its evidence and rested. The jury returned its verdict in favor of plaintiff for $27,700. Thereafter Allied filed its motion for new trial. The trial court overruled the motion on condition that plaintiff remit the sum of $12,700. Plaintiff filed such a remittitur within the time allowed by the trial court’s orders. Judgment was entered for plaintiff and against Allied in the sum of $15,000. Allied gave notice in open court of its intention to appeal and filed its appeal in this Court within the time allowed by the orders of the trial court.

Allied argues ten separate propositions of error in its brief. Since some of them may properly be considered together, we will not discuss them in the order they are argued in the brief.

A. Allied’s propositions I, II, VI and X are directed at the trial court’s asserted error in failing to recognize the basis of plaintiff’s action. Propositions VI and X are that the trial court erred in failing to submit the question of negligence to the jury and that the judgment is outside the scope of the issue. Propositions I and II are that the trial court should have sustained its objection to the introduction of evidence or its motion for directed verdict.

Allied states that since plaintiff alleged that Allied was negligent, the trial court should have instructed on this theory and failure to do so is fundamental and prejudicial error. Allied cites City of Henryetta v. Runyan, 207 Okl. 300, 249 *971 P.2d 425; Pechacek v. Hightower, Okl., 269 P.2d 342; Swafford v. Vermillion, Okl., 261 P.2d 187; and Kelly v. Employers Casualty Co., 202 Okl. 437, 214 P.2d 925.

In the case of City of Henryetta v. Run-yan, supra, we said that certain instructions were erroneous because they failed to require the jury to find that the defendant’s acts in erecting and operating a waterworks caused plaintiff’s damages. In the Pecha-cek, Swafford and Kelly cases, supra, we said that instructions were fatally defective unless they presented the theory on which the case was tried and evidence introduced.

The instruction in the instant case meets the requirements outlined in the above cases. The jury was instructed that they must find that defendant diverted surface water flowing from defendant’s property to plaintiff’s property “in such manner as to cause injury” to plaintiff’s property before they could return a verdict for plaintiff. We have previously held in cases such as this that the plaintiff need not prove negligent construction. In Oklahoma City v. Bethel, 175 Okl. 193, 51 P.2d 313, we said that no one has the authority to collect water by artificial means and permit it to overflow upon the premises of an adjacent owner in greater volume or velocity than it would naturally flow prior to the construction of such. We said:

“Such acts may well be said to be wrongful and unlawful without regard to the question of negligence.”

In the companion case of Oklahoma City v. Shepherd, 175 Okl. 197, 51 P.2d 318, which arose from the same facts as the Bethel case, supra, we said in part in the first paragraph of the syllabus:

“ * * * it is not error to fail to include an instruction to the effect that before plaintiff can recover he must prove the allegations of negligence.”

In the instant case plaintiff alleged and offered proof of the facts that during and since the construction on defendant’s property the defendants permitted large quantities of dirt, rock, silt, mud and debris to be deposited on her property which caused injury to her property. She also alleged that the construction was done in a negligent manner. Under the two cases cited immediately above and in these circumstances, plaintiff was not required to prove, and the trial court was not required to instruct on, negligent construction. Therefore the trial court committed no error in its instructions and the judgment is within the scope of the issues made up by the pleadings and the evidence.

Allied’s propositions I and II are based on the fact that Allied’s acts were all done through independent contractors. Allied relies principally on the case of Oklahoma City v. Caple, 187 Okl. 600, 105 P.2d 209, which states:

“The general rule is that an owner is not liable for the negligence of its independent contractor, except where the work is inherently dangerous or unlawful, or in cases where the principal contractor owes a contractual or a defined legal duty to the injured party in the performance of the work.” (Emphasis ours.)

Allied’s acts in the instant case fall within the exception to this general rule.

In Oklahoma Ry. Co. v. Boyd, 140 Okl. 45, 282 P. 157, we said that when one constructs an embankment across a stream, he owes a duty to third persons situated along said stream in the vicinity to construct it so as not to obstruct the natural flow óf water as to flood and injure such third persons. In the second paragraph of the syllabus of the case we held:

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Bluebook (online)
1964 OK 16, 389 P.2d 968, 1964 Okla. LEXIS 273, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allied-hotels-ltd-v-barden-okla-1964.