Berglan v. Kuhlman

1938 OK 122, 77 P.2d 47, 182 Okla. 168, 1938 Okla. LEXIS 91
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 1, 1938
DocketNo. 27602.
StatusPublished

This text of 1938 OK 122 (Berglan v. Kuhlman) 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
Berglan v. Kuhlman, 1938 OK 122, 77 P.2d 47, 182 Okla. 168, 1938 Okla. LEXIS 91 (Okla. 1938).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment rendered on the pleadings in an action commenced by plaintiff in error against defendant in error.

The principal question involved is whether the judgment so rendered violates the established rule that a motion for judgment for defendant on the pleadings will not be sustained, where on the pleadings as a whole facts are stated which show that plaintiff is entitled to some legal or equitable relief. In the consideration of such a case the facts so stated are assumed to be true. This requires examination of all the pleadings.

This action grows out of a former action between the same parties wherein Kuhlman and the board of couni y commissioners of Cleveland county were plaintiffs and Berg-lan, plaintiff in this action, was defendant, wherein an injunction was sought against. Berglan, and in which a restraining order, or temporary injunction, was issued.

Defendant, J. IT. Kuhlman, Jr., owned a farm consisting of 320 acres in Cleveland county lying on the west side of the section line, and plaintiff, Berglan. owned a farm consisting of 160 acres lying on the east side of said section line, and east of the north half of defendant Kuhlman’s farm.'

The farms of both Kuhlman and Berglan are for the greater part bottom land to the north of Little river. But both farms extend on the north into the hill land. On each side of the road running north and south on the section line between the two farms there was and had been for a long time a ditch or drain to carry the water south to a small creek and thence into Little river. Berglan maintained a levee or *169 embankment on tbe west side of his farm for the purpose of confining' the water to the ditch or dam between the embankment and the graded part of the road and to prevent the water from flowing eastward or southeastward across his bottom land. Berg-lan was about to repair this levee when Kuhlman and the board of county commissioners of Cleveland county brought an action for an injunction to enjoin him from so doing.

A temporary restraining order, dated April 16, 1932, was issued,, which in part provided:

“It is ordered that the defendant, George S. Berglan, be and he is hereby restrained from proceeding with the digging of said ditch or the raising of said levee until Monday, the 2nd day of May, 1932, which date is set for the hearing for a temporary injunction, or until further order of the district court.”

This order was apparently treated as a temporary injunction. Defendant in that case filed his answer, to which reply was made.

The cause came on for trial about April 20, 1933. After the evidence was in, the trial, judge made personal inspection of the premises, and later entered judgment, a copy of which is attached to and made a part of the petition of plaintiff herein. Said judgment in part reads:

„* * * An(j colTrt fin(js the allegations of the petition and the allegations of the defendant’s answer are insufficient to cover all- the material facts shown by the evidence, and the court, at the request of the parties having viewed the premises, permitted amendments to be made to the pleadings by interlineation to conform to the proof, and the court finds the issues in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiff, and that the injunction prayed for should be denied; but that there is a small cut through a hill on the defendant’s farm which diverts the water out of its natural course (and which should) and which should not be permitted, and upon the closing of said cut in said hill said injunction prayed for should be denied.
“It is therefore ordered and adjudged by the court that the injunction prayed for in the plaintiff’s petition be, and the same is hereby denied, but that the defendant shall not maintain a cut or ditch through the hill that runs southeastwardly and northwesterly across the defendant’s farm in any manner to change the natural course of said water and cause it to flow toward or upon plaintiff’s land from the northeast side of said hill.
“The plaintiff’s petition, is ordered amended to allege that there is a cut through said hill.
“The defendant’s answer is ordered amended to allege that there is a ditch constructed by plaintiff, J. H. Kuhlman, Jr., across his farm from the west to the east, which diverts the natural flow of the water from its southwestward course, into Little river to _ an eastern course into Republican creek.”

The amendment as to the petition of plaintiff in that cause was not filed, but later, after this action was commenced, an order was made permitting same to be filed. From the judgment entered in that case, Kuhlman appealed to this court. This appeal was later dismissed and the judgment became final.

Thereafter Berglan commenced this action against Kuhlman and the board of county commissioners of Cleveland county to recover damages resulting from the alleged wrongful restraining order or injunction. Later the ease was dismissed as to the board of county commissioners.

The petition of plaintiff sets out at great length the location of the premises, the alleged acts and conduct of defendant Kuhl-man in permitting a small creek running across Kuhlman’s land to become filled up and permitting willows, etc., to grow in said creek so as to restrict the flow of water and thereby divert flood waters from said stream to flow over and across plaintiff’s land, and other matters, apparently in aid of his claim that the so-called injunction was wrongfully obtained. 1-Ie attaches a copy of Kuhlman’s petition in the injunction case, Berglan’s answer' and Kuhlman’s reply, the journal entry of judgment in the former action, pleads at length the alleged effect of water overflowing his land during the time said so-called injunction was in effect, claims the destruction of' 65 acres of his land of the value of $100 per acre, $250 attorney’s fees, and $150 expenses incurred in defending the suit for injunction, and prays for $6,900 damages.

Kuhlman filed his answer. Therein he sets up denial that the relief sought by him in the former action was denied in toto, and asserts that final determination in that cause was partly in his favor, and specifically alleges that the injunction prayed for by him in the former action was denied conditionally, in that by said judgment Berglan was required to close a cut or ditch through a hill on his, Berglan’s, farm. Berglan replied, among other things, alleging:

“Further replying, plaintiff says that the *170 relief granted 'by the court in said cause No. 10707 was entirely outside of the pleadings, and said Kuhlman, Jr., did not seek said relief in his petition and he did not restrain plaintiff in said cause from maintaining the cut which the court required plaintiff to close in consideration of the defendant closing certain ditches on his farm; and same, therefore, constituted no probable cause for bringing and maintaining said action; in fact, plaintiff had offered to close said cut before, and the said Kuhlman had told him that he had no objection thereto.”

Thereafter Kuhlman, defendant herein, filed his motion for judgment in his favor upon the pleadings.

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Bluebook (online)
1938 OK 122, 77 P.2d 47, 182 Okla. 168, 1938 Okla. LEXIS 91, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berglan-v-kuhlman-okla-1938.