Gunther v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co.

157 F. Supp. 25, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2444
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. West Virginia
DecidedDecember 12, 1957
DocketCiv. A. 182-M
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 157 F. Supp. 25 (Gunther v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. West Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gunther v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co., 157 F. Supp. 25, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2444 (N.D.W. Va. 1957).

Opinion

BOREMAN, District Judge.

This case involves demands for damages for personal injuries, damages for injuries to real property, and for injunctive relief.

Introductory Review of Facts

The plaintiffs, Frank A. Gunther, Jr., and Frieda E. Gunther, husband and wife, hereinafter sometimes referred to-as the Gunthers, reside in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, D. C., where Mr. Gunther is employed as an-officer of a bank. In 1948, the Gunthers purchased a tract of land in theHedgesville district of Berkeley County, West Virginia, containing 25% acres, and in 1949 purchased an adjacent tract containing about 5 acres. In 1950, a dwelling house was constructed on the-smaller tract, which house is of concrete-block construction, consisting of two-bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bath. There is an attic with flooring but no basement. The interior of the outside walls is painted with several coats of “stone set” and primer and flat wall paint. The inside partitions and the ceilings are of wallboard fastened to studding and ceiling joists. The joints between the wallboard and the outside walls are covered with a tape and are painted the same as the other surfaces. Heating is supplied from an oil burning heater.

The plaintiff, Ethel E. Heath, the wife of Oscar C. Heath, and her husband have resided since 1948 in a dwelling house owned by her daughter, Mrs. Hilda Grotz, located on Route 2, Hedges-ville, Berkeley County, West Virginia.

Defendant, E. I. duPont de Nemours & Co., Inc., hereinafter called duPont, *27 -owns and operates a modern plant for the manufacture of explosives, located on a 1,400-acre site with 51 operating buildings, and known as the Potomac River Works. This plant is the most complex ■of duPont’s explosives operations and is •one of the largest, if not the largest, •explosives production plants in this country. It employs over 400 persons and the total payroll for the year 1956 was $2,400,000. Separated from said manufacturing plant but in the same general ■area, duPont established another plant known as the Potomac River Laboratory, used for the purpose of studying and improving the explosives manufactured by duPont. Safety in the use of explosives, increasing the quality and efficiency thereof, and lowering the cost to the consumer are some of the objectives. The laboratory represents an investment of over $800,000, employs approximately 40 persons and has an annual payroll of from $250,000 to $300,000.

In connection with the manufacture of explosives, duPont conducts two types of experiments which involve actual explosions of the product being tested, namely, “production” testing and “experimental” testing. The purpose of the former is to insure that a particular production “run” meets the requisite ■standards before being placed on the market. The latter involves new products, competitors’ products, etc. A large part of the production of the Potomac River Works consists of an explosive sold under the trade name of “Nitromon”, which is a very stable explosive and which cannot be detonated by kicks, jars, vibrations or even by a bullet fired from ■a rifle. The efficiency of a given weight of this explosive is almost equal to that of the same weight of nitroglycerin, but the latter is a very unstable explosive which is easily detonated. The usual method of using Nitromon is to explode it by use of a 14-pound primer composed of a less stable compound.

Before 1954 and up to the present time, duPont has tested relatively small quantities of explosives on the grounds of the Potomac River Works. However, one of the characteristics of Nitromon is that it cannot be exploded in small quantities. Since the buildings of the Potomac River Works are more or less centered in the 1,400 acres, the testing site there must, of necessity, be toward the perimeter of the area and within a few hundred yards of the homes in the neighborhood. The demand for Nitromon was increasing and duPont found it necessary to acquire a site where the larger quantities could be tested without undue annoyance to the inhabitants of the area. Various properties in the general vicinity of Martinsburg, West Virginia, were examined and on October 8,1954, duPont leased from Mr. and Mrs. J. Arnold Haderer a tract of land in Hedgesville district of Berkeley County, West Virginia. DuPont actually took possession of the property on or about October 1, 1954, and since that time has been occupying it under and by virtue of the terms of the Haderer lease, and has been conducting the testings of explosives thereon.

The Haderer tract, hereinafter called the test site, is located approximately two air miles from the property of the Gunthers and one and one-half air miles from the property occupied by Mrs. Heath and her husband. It is about 15 miles from Martinsburg and about 6 miles from Hedgesville. The test site itself is located in the area known as White’s Hollow, in rugged and hilly terrain, and in an area devoted largely to timbering and agricultural pursuits, and near a large tract of land owned by the State of West Virginia known as Sleepy Creek State Forest. Coal has been mined in the vicinity at various times and over a period of many years. The defendant’s Exhibits Nos. 3 through 7, being photographs taken at the test site, show that the land adjacent to the cleared portions is fairly well covered with trees and underbrush.

Since the Gunthers built their dwelling house in 1950, they have occupied it intermittently on week ends, holidays, vacations and upon a few other ocea *28 sions until the present time. It is their desire to reside there permanently upon Mr. Gunther’s retirement. The property upon which their house is located has been in Mrs. Gunther’s family for over a hundred years, her mother having been born there. The Gunthers value their property at approximately $18,000 but indicated that they did not desire to sell it.

The evidence shows that the Heaths have heard the blasting at the test site since about September or October of 1954, but that the explosions were first heard by the Gunthers on December 2, 1954. On the following day, Mr. Gunther consulted an attorney at Martins-burg, West Virginia, and asked him to determine what could be done to stop the blasting. The attorney wrote several letters to duPont and met with duPont representatives on at least one occasion.

In the correspondence just mentioned, two items appear which may be recited here. One concerned the possibility that duPont might develop a vault or chamber in which the larger and heavier charges could be detonated and which would muffle and contain the noise. The evidence was uncontradicted that, although several thousand dollars had been expended in the attempt, such a test vault or chamber has not yet been perfected. The other item was in the nature of a suggestion that duPont might procure a test site in Sleepy Creek State Forest. Samuel Walker, Director of the Potomac River Laboratory, inspected several areas in the State Forest in company with the Forest Game Manager. It was Walker’s opinion that none of the sites in the forest would be as good as the White’s Hollow test site, and that any possible site in the forest would be, perhaps, closer to dwellings than the present site.

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Bluebook (online)
157 F. Supp. 25, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2444, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gunther-v-e-i-du-pont-de-nemours-co-wvnd-1957.