Davon Oil Co. v. Steele

1940 OK 27, 98 P.2d 618, 186 Okla. 380, 1940 Okla. LEXIS 12
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 23, 1940
DocketNo. 28885.
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 1940 OK 27 (Davon Oil Co. v. Steele) 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
Davon Oil Co. v. Steele, 1940 OK 27, 98 P.2d 618, 186 Okla. 380, 1940 Okla. LEXIS 12 (Okla. 1940).

Opinion

OSBORN, J.

This action was instituted in the court of common pleas of Oklahoma county by Murry M. Steele and Mary B. Steele, hereinafter referred to as plaintiffs, against the Davon Oil Company, successors to the Harrell-Davis Oil Company, hereinafter referred to as defendant, wherein plaintiffs sought to recover certain damages alleged to have been sustained to their real property by the drilling of a well for oil and gas by the defendant. Issues were joined and the cause was tried to a jury resulting in a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs in the sum of $720. From a judgment thereon defendant has appealed.

Among other assignments of error, defendant complains of the instructions. It is contended that the instructions given made the defendant liable in the absence of negligence and placed too high a duty in the degree of care imposed upon the defendant; that the court did not give an instruction upon a theory of defense pleaded and proved by the defendant; that the issues were erroneously defined in the instructions and departed from the pleadings and proof. In order to determine the sufficiency of the instructions it will be necessary to examine the issues of fact made by the pleadings and proof.

Plaintiffs were the owners of a five-acre tract of land located at 55th and South Shields boulevard in Oklahoma City. Defendant was the owner of an oil and gas lease on said property. In February, 1935, defendant moved its drilling equipment upon the property and proceeded to drill a dry hole. The evidence is undisputed that no oil or salt water was produced from said well. In June, 1935, the drilling was abandoned and the equipment was removed from the premises. On February 17, 1937, this action was instituted. The various elements of damage alleged by plaintiffs are stated in separate causes of action. In the plaintiffs’ first cause of action it is alleged that defendant destroyed a fence and iron gate; filled up and blocked a drainage ditch which had been previously constructed upon the premises and was necessary to drain water therefrom, and as a result thereof on May 20, 1935, plaintiffs’ garden was flooded and destroyed. The damages claimed in the first cause of action were in the sum of $107. In the second cause of action plaintiffs alleged the use of water from their water well by defendant and further alleged damage to the pump which was used to draw water from said well. Damages were alleged in said cause of action in the sum of $55. In their third cause of action plaintiffs alleged that after the abandonment of the premises by defendant it had failed and refused to fill in the slush pits or to remove the concrete foundation upon which the derrick rested or to clear the grounds of the rubbish and debris naturally resulting from the drilling of a well; that a reasonable expense for clearing up the ground was the sum of $200; that the oil and salt water and other waste products had saturated approximately one' acre of the premises which had depreci *382 ated the market value of said land in the sum of $300. In connection with this allegation we direct attention to the fact that no oil or salt water was produced by the well drilled by the defendant on plaintiffs’ premises. Plaintiffs sought damages under the third cause of action in the sum of $500. For a fourth cause of action plaintiffs alleged that they had constructed a fish pond upon the premises and on or about October 2, 1935, a large quantity of crude oil escaped from one of defendant’s tanks near the plaintiffs’ property and flowed into the drainage ditch here-inabove referred to and into plaintiffs’ fish pond, saturating the soil thereof and as a result 2,800 fish which were subsequently placed in the pond were killed. The damage claimed under this cause of action was $200. In this connection it will be noted that plaintiffs did not rely upon a violation of section 11580, O. S. 1931, 52 Okla. Stat. Ann. § 296, which prohibits the escape of salt water and oil upon the land or premises, but relied upon the fact that the drainage was stopped by defendant which resulted in the spread of the oil over the premises. It was plaintiffs’ position that if said drainage had remained open, the oil would have been carried through the premises and would not have spread over plaintiffs’ property with resulting damage thereto. It appears that the oil came from a storage tank owned by defendant which was situated to the northwest of plaintiffs’ property. For a fifth cause of action plaintiffs allege that defendant ruined a private driveway from Shields boulevard to the house of plaintiffs located on the premises, and had neglected to repair the same, resulting in damage in the sum of $150. The total amount of damages claimed was the sum of $1,075.

The principal instructions given to the jury are as follows:

“No. 10.
“Gentlemen of the jury, it is the duty of the defendant to use ordinary care and foresight in the construction of and the maintenance of any equipment on the plaintiffs’ property to use ordinary care and foresight, and especially to in any way prevent obstructing or interfering with the natural flow of water accumulating from ordinary rainfall or floods, and if the breach of that duty is the proximate cause of an injury to these plaintiffs’ property, then your verdict should be for the plaintiffs.
“No. 11.
“Gentlemen of the jury, it is the duty of those who explore for oil and gas, to use every effort under the law and every means in their exploration for oil and gas, to see that no waste oil, salt water or other refuse run over the land, or permit any such refuse from such drilling oil well to accumulate on the land, or to permit while drilling such well salt water to go into or be turned into any stream or on the land so that the same will be a detriment to the property.
“No. 12.
“You are instructed that an oil and gas lessee is entitled to go upon the leased premises and drill thereon a well for oil and/or gas, and in so doing may select any reasonable location for said well and may use any right of way which may be reasonably necessary in the transporting of equipment on to said property for the purpose of drilling said oil and gas well.”

Defendant contends that it was entitled to an instruction defining its right to a reasonable use of the premises in the drilling of its well. In the case of Magnolia Petroleum Co. v. Howard, 182 Okla. 101, 77 2d 18, it was held:

“Under an ordinary oil and gas lease, the lessee, in developing the premises in the production .of oil and gas, is entitled to the possession and use of all that part of the leased premises reasonably necessary in producing and saving the oil and gas, including space to construct tanks and ponds, in which to confine salt water and other waste matter coming from the wells. * * *”

To the same effect see the cases of Pure Oil Co. v. Chisholm, 181 Okla. 618, 75 P. 2d 464; Indian Territory Ill. Oil Co. v. Dunivant, 183 Okla. 233, 80 P. 2d 225.

In the case of Pulaski Oil Co. v. Conner, 62 Okla. 211, 162 P. 464, L. R. A. 1917C, 1190, it was said:

*383

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Bluebook (online)
1940 OK 27, 98 P.2d 618, 186 Okla. 380, 1940 Okla. LEXIS 12, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davon-oil-co-v-steele-okla-1940.