Frankfort Oil Company v. Abrams

413 P.2d 190, 159 Colo. 535, 24 Oil & Gas Rep. 738, 1966 Colo. LEXIS 761
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedApril 11, 1966
Docket21071
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 413 P.2d 190 (Frankfort Oil Company v. Abrams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Frankfort Oil Company v. Abrams, 413 P.2d 190, 159 Colo. 535, 24 Oil & Gas Rep. 738, 1966 Colo. LEXIS 761 (Colo. 1966).

Opinions

Mr. Chief Justice Sutton

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This writ of error concerns the question as to whether damages awarded a landowner for use of his land under a lease by an oil company were excessive, as one side contends or were inadequate, as the other side urges. The parties appear in the same order as in the trial court, and they will hereinafter be referred to by name or as the plaintiff and defendant.

Frankfort Oil Company is a Texas corporation engaged in oil and gas exploration and production; it is authorized to do business in Colorado. As the holder of a mineral leasehold estate located in Kiowa County, Colorado, it initially. filed a complaint seeking both a temporary and permanent injunction against the, surface owner, Harry R. Abrams. Frankfort thereby sought to enjoin and restrain Abrams from interfering with its operations, its rights of ingress and egress, and from threatening persons who attempted such entry. The defendant filed an answer and added a counterclaim wherein he sought to recover damages in the amount of $1,500 for alleged injuries to the surface of his property.

Abrams later amended his pleadings, raising the demand in his counterclaim to $14,500. He claimed therein that Frankfort’s drilling operations had in addition damaged four other sections of his land.

After a hearing, the trial court entered a preliminary injunction on December 14, 1960. Trial on the main issue was had to the court on December 19, 1962. Later, pursuant to a stipulation by the parties, the trial court issued a permanent injunction against Abrams. On August 28, 1963, some nine days prior to the granting of the injunction, the court awarded Abrams a judgment on his counterclaim in the amount of $4,737 with interest. Motion for new trial was dispensed with. This [539]*539writ of error is solely concerned with the question of the damages awarded Abrams, which the plaintiff contends are excessive, while the defendant asserts, by way of a cross-error, that they were insufficient.

Before setting forth the errors assigned, it becomes necessary to examine some of the pertinent facts in more detail. In his amended cross-complaint, Abrams sought damages to various portions of Sections 12, and Sections 13, 14, 23, and 24, Township 20 South, Range 49 West of the Sixth Principal Meridian. Issue was joined, however, only as to the West Half (W %) and Southeast Quarter (SE %) of Section 12, the South Half (S %) of Section 14, and the Northeast Quarter (NE %) of Section 23. Thus, Sections 13 and 24 are not involved here.

These lands were conveyed on April 16, 1957, by the State of Colorado to the defendant and his son as joint tenants under Patent Number 7022. Section 11, which was also mentioned in the patent, is not involved in this action. The patent contains the following reservation:

“RESERVING, however, to the State of Colorado, all rights to any and all minerals, ores and metals of any kind and character, and all coal, asphaltum, oil, gas or other like substance in or under said land, the right of ingress or egress for the purpose of mining, together with enough of the surface of the same as may be necessary for the proper and convenient working of such minerals and substances.”

Prior to the date of the above deed, Colorado had leased the mineral estate reserved from the above-described land by means of Oil and Gas Lease No. 4623, Book 17, dated June 15, 1950 to one Ramon P. Colvert. Paragraph 11 of the lease provided:

“11. Lessee shall be liable and agrees to pay for all damages to the land, livestock, growing crops or improvements caused by lessee’s operations on said lands. It- is agreed and understood that no drilling operations shall be commenced on the lands hereinabove described unless and until the lessee or his assignees shall have [540]*540filed a good and sufficient bond with the lessor in an amount to be fixed by lessor, to secure the payment for such damage to land, livestock, growing crops or improvements as may be caused by lessee or his assignee’s operations of said lands. When requested by lessor, lessee shall bury pipe lines below plow depth.” (Emphasis supplied.)

There is in evidence, as Exhibit E, a written agreement executed by Abrams in August 1956 granting one of plaintiff’s assignees consent to enter upon that part of Section 12 involved here (along with other lands). The grantee named therein is given express permission to enter, explore, drill, construct roads, tanks, pipelines, houses and other necessary structures and to perform its operations.

It was stipulated that Frankfort was the present holder of the lease in question and that Abrams owned the surface rights so “Neither party will have to prove title.” It is also noted that prior to trial, the defendant’s son assigned all his rights to the cause of action, which he may have had, to his father.

The court made the following conclusions of law which are relevant to this writ of error:

“1. That Harry R. Abrams is the owner of the surface of * '* * (here properly listing the land located in Sections 12 and 14) and the North Half (N %) and the Southwest Quarter (SW %) of Section twenty-three (23), * * *
«2 * ❖ *
ííg :J; ;J: *
“4. That Harry R. Abrams is a third party beneficiary under the terms of the oil and gas lease Number 4623 and therefore, Frankfort Oil Company has contractual obligations to him.
“5. That as a third party beneficiery Abrams has a right to maintain this action.
“6. That the question of whether or not Frankfort [541]*541used ‘normal oil field practices’ or was negligent is not an issue in this case and is immaterial.
“7. That should the question of negligence be material, then it is the conclusion of this Court that Frankfort failed to use normal field practices; that Frankfort was. negligent in its gas field operations; and, that Frankfort’s negligent acts were the proximate cause of Abrams’ damages.
“8. That the prairie hay produced annually by Abrams is a crop within the meaning of the lease.
“Q * * *
“10. That the questions of dominant estate, servient estate, and public policy are not justiciable issues in this case.”

In addition, the court made certain findings of fact and assessed certain damages, the substance of which will be-treated hereafter with particularity when relevant.

Frankfort assigned various grounds as error which can be summarized as follows:

(1) That the question of negligence was not a justiciable issue, but that should it be found to be material, it was error to find that Frankfort was negligent in its operations.
(2) That depreciation in value to surrounding surface land owned by the defendant, but not used by the plaintiff, which depreciation allegedly occurred as a result of Frankfort’s operations, is not a compensable item of damage for it constitutes damnum absque injuria notwithstanding Paragraph 11 of the lease.
(3) That if such depreciation is compensable, the court erred in including the West Half (W %) of Section 23.
(4) That as to the land that was

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Frankfort Oil Company v. Abrams
413 P.2d 190 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1966)

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Bluebook (online)
413 P.2d 190, 159 Colo. 535, 24 Oil & Gas Rep. 738, 1966 Colo. LEXIS 761, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frankfort-oil-company-v-abrams-colo-1966.