Dotterer v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co.

1920 OK 135, 188 P. 1055, 78 Okla. 67, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 302
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 30, 1920
Docket6343
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1920 OK 135 (Dotterer v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co.) 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
Dotterer v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co., 1920 OK 135, 188 P. 1055, 78 Okla. 67, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 302 (Okla. 1920).

Opinion

BAILEY, J.

This action was begun in the district court of Alfalfa county by D. W. Dotterer and others, plaintiffs in error, hereinafter styled plaintiffs, against the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company and others, hereinafter styled defendants, seeking an order requiring and commanding said defendants to remove certain bridges, embankments, and part of defendant’s 'line of railway, and to require said defendants to construct adequate bridges across Driftwood creek, and draws and ravines adjacent to said creek. The plaintiffs alleged that said plaintiffs are the owners of certain real estate, located in sections 4, 27, 11, 34, and 28, in township 28 north, range 11, Alfalfa county, Oklahoma and that the defendant, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, is a corporation, operating a line of railway into and through Alfalfa county, Oklahoma, and across the said lands and premises above described; that the said railroad in question was completed in the years of 1901 and 1902, and was built, owned and operated by the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railway Company, but subsequently, in the year of 1904, leased to the said Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, for a term and period of 999 years.

Plaintiffs further allege that said railway crosses a stream of water known as Driftwood creek, that said creek drains a large area of land, and that in time of heavy rainfall the water rises in said creek and overflows the bottom and low lands adjacent thereto. Plaintiffs say that since the construction of said railway the waters of said creek have frequently overflowed the lands of these plaintiffs, to their hurt and damage, and that said overflows were occasioned and caused by the negligent construction of the bridges and embankments of said railway; that said bridges and embankments were constructed without adequate openings therein for the passage of said overflow waters, and that said bridges and embankments are of such character and so constructed as to obstruct and interfere with the natural flow of the waters in said creek in times of heavy rainfall to such an extent that the waters are thereby caused to dam up and back over ■the lands of these plaintiffs, to their great hurt and damage; that the defendants, well knowing these conditions and the results flowing therefrom, still maintain and will continue to maintain said embankments and bridges in such careless, negligent, and unlawful condition.

Plaintiffs aver that on or about the 5th day of August, 1911, there came a heavy rain which caused the waters to rise in said creek, and by reason of the careless and negligent construction of said right of way, embankment, and bridges thereon, said waters were caused thereby to overflow the lands of these plaintiffs, and it is prayed that these defendants be required, by order of the court, to abate said nuisance; that otherwise the lands of the plaintiffs will be liable at all times to be overflowed, injured, damaged, *68 and destroyed. Plaintiffs further ,say that said defendants and each of them have had notice and knowledge, or with the exercise -of reasonable care or caution could have known, of said condition, and, though requested so to do, have refused to abate said condition.

The defendants answered, and after general denial, and admission of corporate existence, averred that the line of railway described in plaintiffs’ petition was constructed in the years 1901 and 1902, by the Choctaw-Northern Railway Company, and subsequently sold, with all rights thereto appertaining, to the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railway Company, and that on March 24, 1904, the said Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railway Company leased and let said railway to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company for a period and term of 999 years, and that since said time said railway has 'been operated by said Chicago, Rock Island >& Pacific Railway Company, and that the roadbeds and. embankments, bridges, and tracks thereon have not been changed since the construction thereof, except to the extent of repairs made necessary by reason of ordinary wear and tear from the use and the elements, and that there has been no material change thereof since the same was constructed. The defendants further answer that the Choctaw-Northern Railway Company acquired a right of way, on which said railway was afterwards constructed, by purchase from certain parties in said answer named, and that each of the plaintiffs herein had notice of the terms of said deeds, and of the provisions therein contained and had notice of the construction of said line of railway, and that more than ten years have elapsed since the construction of said line of railway and roadbed and embankments, bridges, and tracks thereon, and that plaintiffs nor either of them have made any protest or objection; that answering defendant has had at all times since the 24th day of March, 1904, an agent duly authorized to receive service or process of said defendant, and that the cause of action, if any plaintiff has or had, arose more than five years before the 30th day of September, 1912 (the day on which plaintiffs’ petition was filed), and that ■said plaintiffs cannot, therefore, at this time maintain this action in this court

The issues thus joined, the case was tried to the court without the intervention of a jury, and on the 26th day of November, 1913. judgment was rendered by the court wherein the court found that the defendants had maintained the embankments and roadbed of said railroad company upon and across said section 34, township 28 north, range 11 west, Alfalfa county, Oklahoma, in a manner insufficient to carry off all the surface and overflow waters which necessarily flowed in the direction of and against said embankment on said section, and the court further found that said railroad bridge across said Driftwood creek on the said section 3 was of sufficient size to permit the normal flow of water in times of ordinary high water, and therefore denied plaintiffs’ petition for a larger bridge at that place. The judgment further providing:

“It is therefore by the court considered, ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the defendants shall on or before the "first day of May, 1914, construct in its said embankment where is located the 24 inch drain tile on the southwest quarter of section 34, a bridge not less than fifty feet in length, and thereafter maintain the same in a reasonable and prudent- manner so that said bridge shall permit surface and overflow waters to pass through.
“And it is further considered, ordered, adjudged, and decreed that plaintiffs’ petition and prayer for an extension of defendants’ railroad and railway crossings, bridges, or their right of way across said Driftwood creek in the northwest quarter of section 3, be denied”

• — to all of which findings, orders, judgments, and decrees, insofar as the same deny relief to plaintiffs’ demand for any additional bridges across Driftwood creek, and for a bridge of larger capacity, plaintiffs objected and excepted. Motion for a new trial was filed by plaintiffs, and thereafter, after due consideration, the same was overruled, and plaintiffs appeal the cause to this court.

Plaintiffs in their brief present their contentions to this court as follows:

“The questions presented on this appeal, as in the trial court, concern the sufficiency of defendant’s bridges and waterways in its line of railroad across Driftwood creek and the lowlands adjacent.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1920 OK 135, 188 P. 1055, 78 Okla. 67, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 302, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dotterer-v-chicago-r-i-p-r-co-okla-1920.