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Elliott v. State Highway Commission

28 P.2d 960, 138 Kan. 738, 1934 Kan. LEXIS 300
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJanuary 27, 1934
DocketNo. 30,798
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 28 P.2d 960 (Elliott v. State Highway Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Elliott v. State Highway Commission, 28 P.2d 960, 138 Kan. 738, 1934 Kan. LEXIS 300 (kan 1934).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Burch, J.:

The action was one for damages for injury to person and property when plaintiff’s automobile went off the road at an S curve and into a drainage ditch at the side of the road. Defend[739]*739ant, the state highway commission, was charged with negligence in suffering a chuck hole, which deflected plaintiff’s automobile, to remain in the road, and in other respects. Defendant, the Shell Petroleum Corporation, was charged with negligence in maintaining an exposed pipe line across the ditch, which plaintiff’s automobile struck. Plaintiff recovered against both defendants, and they appeal.

The curve in question is just west of Oxford, on the highway between Wellington and Oxford. A representation of the curve with some additional data sufficient for present purposes, follows (see page 740):

We shall be principally concerned with what may be called the west curve. The highway was an improved highway, but the sand and gravel with which it had been surfaced were somewhat worn off on the curve. • Going east it was upgrade from the beginning of the curve to the pipe line and some distance beyond. The curve was a slightly banked curve, sloping toward the south. On the north side of the curve was a drainage ditch made in original construction of the highway. Just east of the pipe line the ditch was rather shallow. Just west of the pipe line it was deeper.

In June, 1927, the Shell company installed a four-inch pipe line for transportation of natural gas beneath the highway and below the bottom of the ditch. In 1928 an oil well was located north of the highway, and the pipe line interfered with the cellar pit. Therefore a swing to the right was put in. The old line was cut, and a T was put in, top down. The north end of the T was plugged, and the south end was attached to the pipe under the road. An L was then put on, and a connection was made above the old pipe with a new pipe line which ran underground northeastward to the right of the oil well cellar pit.

There was testimony for plaintiff that, beginning three or four feet east of the pipe line and extending from six to ten feet west of the pipe line, the south bank of the ditch had caved in some two to four feet toward the center of the road,, due to action of water in the ditch. Along the edge of the cave-in were weeds and other vegetation. Next to the weeds on the south was a ridge of sand and gravel thrown up by the road maintainer, which passed over the road several times a week. The morning after the accident this ridge was twelve to fourteen or sixteen inches wide and six to eight inches high.

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Related

Parsons v. State Highway Commission
72 P.2d 75 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1937)
Rakestraw v. State Highway Commission
53 P.2d 482 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1936)

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Bluebook (online)
28 P.2d 960, 138 Kan. 738, 1934 Kan. LEXIS 300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elliott-v-state-highway-commission-kan-1934.