Enid Oil & Pipe Line Co. v. Champlin

1925 OK 750, 240 P. 649, 113 Okla. 170, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 940
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 22, 1925
Docket14312
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 1925 OK 750 (Enid Oil & Pipe Line Co. v. Champlin) 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
Enid Oil & Pipe Line Co. v. Champlin, 1925 OK 750, 240 P. 649, 113 Okla. 170, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 940 (Okla. 1925).

Opinion

HUNT, J.

This action was commenced in the district court of Garfield county by H. H. Champlin, as plaintiff, against Enid Oil & Pipe Line Company, a corporation, as defendant, in July, 1919. An amended petition was thereafter filed, and on motion of the defendant, the Oil State Refining Company, a' corporation, was made defendant, and the defendant Enid Oil & Pipe Line Company filed its answer to the amended petition of plaintiff denying any liability to it, and also filed its cross-petition against its eodefendant, Oil Stats Refining Company, setting out that if, as alleged in plaintiff’s amended petition, the Oil State Refining Company received oil which was being transported through its lines to plaintiff, then the Oil State Refining Company is liable for the value of the oil so received, and if plaintiff should recover any judgment against the defendant Enid Oil & Pipe Line Company, it -was entitled to judgment over and against its codefendant, the Oil State Refining Company. The defendant Oil State Refining Company objected to being mode a party defendant, contending that this was a suit against the Enid Oil & Pipe Line Company as a common carrier on its contract of carriage and that it was neither a necessary nor proper party. The trial court overruled this contention and made it a party defendant and required it to answer, to all of which defendant Oil State Refining Company duly . excepted. A trial was had to the court without a jury, the same being waived, and judgment rendered for the plaintiff, Champlin, against the defendant Enid Oil & Pipe Line Company for $26,-741.67, and for the defendant Enid Oil & Pipe Line Company against its codefendant, Oil State Refining Company, for the same amount. Separate motions for new trial were filed in due time by each defendant and same overruled and judgment was entered in accordance with the findings of the court as above stated, and from this judgment, this appeal is taken. Each defendant filed separate petitions in error in this court and same will therefore be considered separately.

The Enid Oil & Pipe Túne Company being principal defendant, we will first consider its assignments of error to the effect that the judgment of the court is not supported by sufficient evidence, and is contrary to both the law and the evidence. The undisputed facts in this case are that the plaintiff, Champlin, was the owner of some producing oil leases in the Garber field and was also purchasing oil in this field and was operating a refinery in the city of Enid, some 18 miles away. That the defendant Enid Oil & Pipe Line Company owned and operated a pipe line from the Garber field to the city of Enid and that plaintiff entered into a contract with it as a common carrier to transport his oil from the field to his refinery. Subsequently, the defendant Oil State Refining Company completed a refinery in the city1 of Enid adjacent to and near the refinery of plaintiff and began purchasing oil from the Garber field and arranged with the defendant Enid Oil & Pipe Line Company to transport its oil from the Garber field to its refinery. Plaintiff’s contention is clearly set out in his amended petition, and omitting the caption, same is as follows:

“Comes now the plaintiff and for cause of action in his amended petition states:
“That the defendant is a corporation existing under and by virtue of the laws of the state .of Oklahoma, with its principal place of business at Enid, where it is engaged in conducting a pipe line as a common carrier,' transporting crude petroleum from the oil fields in Garfield county to the refineries and was so engaged at all times herein specified and mentioned.
“That the plaintiff is engaged in conducting an oil refinery at the city of Enid and at all times herein mentioned, employed the defendant company to transport1 llfor his refinery, the crude oil produced and purchased by him in the oil field to his said refinery and that as such common carrier, the defendant company received said crude oil and transported the same for hire from September the first, 1918, to and including the month of May, 1919.
“That by reason of a leakage in the valve or gate which closes the oil out from the line and tanks of the Oil State Refining Company tanks, to which refinery said defendant also delivered crude oil through its pipe line during the times herein mentioned, and while the defendant company .was-pumping and delivering crude oil to the refinery of this plaintiff, he sustained a continuous loss and damage, his oil leaking-through the defective gate and valve which the defendant negligently maintained into the receiving tanks of the said Oil State1 Refining Company.
“■Plaintiff states further that said defendant carelessly ^and negligently permitted *172 said gate or valve to remain in a defective condition from the • month of September, 1918, to the month of -May, 1919, inclusive; by reason of which carelessness and negligence on the part of the defendant, the plaintiff lost in the month of September, 1918, 1,254.79 barrels of crude oil; in the month of October, 1918, 218.91 barrels; in the month of November, 1918, 2,750.03 barrels ; in the month of December, 1918, 139.28 barrels; in the month of January, 1919; 471.75 barrels; in the month of February, 1919, 1,776.10 barrels; in ¡the 'month of March, 1919, 1,584.15 barrels; in the month of April, 1919, 2,484.28 barrels, and in the month of May, 1919, 1,735.03 barrels,' all of which was and is of the value of $4.10 per barrel, and by reason of which loss occasioned by the carelessness and negligence of the defendant, the plaintiff has been damaged in the total sum of $51,549.75, for which demand-has been duly made upon the defendant and which «it has and does refuse to pay and for which amount the plaintiff,- together with his costs, should recover judgment, less unpaid transportation charges due defendant, of $10,684.69.
“Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment against the defendant in the sum of $40,-900.86, and for costs of suit.”

The transportation charges referred to were paid before trial and were therefore eliminated from the case.

It will thus be seen that plaintiff, while alleging that the defendant Oil State Refining Company,., in,,fact, got a large portion of his, -oil, seeks no- judgment against it, but relies solely - on his contract of carriage with the defendant pipe line company and seeks judgment against-, it for failure to deliver to his refinery the actual number of barrels of his oil received in the field less only such lo'ss in transit; as is due to the nature of the product without negligence on the part of the carrier.

Plaintiff admits that defendant is entitled to credit for such oil as was actually lost in transit due to the nature of the product itself, without any negligence on the part of defendant carrier.

Defendant Enid Oil & Pipe Line Company in its answer admits the contract of carriage with plaintiff, but denies that plaintiff lost any oil, and alleges the fact to be that according to the system used in gauging the oil both at the field and refinery which was inaugurated by plaintiff more oil was receipted for by plaintiff at his refinery in Enid than the defendant pipe line company receipted for in the field.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1925 OK 750, 240 P. 649, 113 Okla. 170, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 940, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/enid-oil-pipe-line-co-v-champlin-okla-1925.