H. F. Wilcox Oil & Gas Co. v. Johnson

1937 OK 250, 86 P.2d 51, 184 Okla. 198, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 251
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 13, 1937
DocketNo. 25452.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1937 OK 250 (H. F. Wilcox Oil & Gas Co. v. Johnson) 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
H. F. Wilcox Oil & Gas Co. v. Johnson, 1937 OK 250, 86 P.2d 51, 184 Okla. 198, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 251 (Okla. 1937).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

This action was commenced by defendant in error, herein referred to as plaintiff, against the H. F. Wilcox Oil & Gas Company and some 14 other oil companies to recover damages alleged to have been caused by the pollution of a stream running through plaintiff’s land, and the overflow of said stream by which oil, salt water, and sediment, the polluting substances, were deposited upon plaintiff’s land.

Plaintiff’s petition alleged that said stream had been polluted by defendants since about 1922, or 1923, and alleged that the pollution of the stream itself had affected the value of the land. But the principal claim upon which plaintiff bases her cause of action was the overflow of the stream in October and November, 1931, and January, 1932, when said stream overflowed its banks and deposited great quantities of oil, salt water, base sediment, and other poisonous substances upon plaintiff’s land, consisting of approximately 600 acres, causing the damage sued for.

Defendants answered by general denial, pleaded the statute of limitations, and alleged contributions to the injury by plaintiff in that she had leased some of her land several miles up the stream from the land here involved to an oil company, and that said oil company contributed to the pollution.

The dase was tried to the court without a jury, resulting in findings of fact and conclusions of law favorable to plaintiff, with judgment accordingly, and defendants appeal.

The first question presented is that plaintiff’s cause of 'action was barred by limitation in that she alleged in her petition that the pollution of the stream had continued over a long period of years, from 1922 or 1923, down to January, 1932, and that the value of her land had been affected thereby.

There was evidence to the effect that polluted water had been flowing down the stream for several years, and some evidence went in to the effect that the value of plaintiff’s land had decreased somewhat as the result thereof. But plaintiff’s main claim was based upon, and the principal part of the evidence went to, the effect of the overflow of the stream in October and November, 1931, and January, 1932, all within the two-year period next before the suit was commenced. Furthermore, at the trial, and the court so found, plaintiff renounced any claim for damage on account of the pollution of the stream itself as such.

The trial court found that no substantial damage had been done to plaintiff’s land by the overflow of the stream until in October and November, 1931, and January, 1932, and that plaintiff did sustain damage by reason of the flood water pollutions deposited on the land during said months.

The judgment was .based wholly upon said findings.

It appears that the pollution came from a large oil field, ten or twelve miles in length and from three to five miles wide, located up the stream from plaintiff’s land, and within the watershed of said stream.

The identical question was before this court in the recent case of Pine v. Duncan, 179 Okla. 336, 66 P. (2d) 492. Therein it is said:

“The fact that the stream had been polluted for several years, and two of plaintiff’s trees destroyed, did not cause the *200 damage complained of and does not prevent this action for permanent injury to the land within the statutory period caused by increased pollution. An action for damages to real property caused by pollution is not barred by the statute of limitations because oil and salt water have escaped into a stream running through plaintiffs’ land for more than two years prior to the filing of the action, but the time within which such action may be brought dates from the time the injuries were received and the damages sustained.”

In Commercial Drilling Co. v. Kennedy, 172 Okla. 475, 45 P. (2d) 534, it is held that:

“In an action for damages for permanent injury to real estate caused by continuing salt water pollution, the statute of limitations begins to run at the time it becomes obvious that a permanent, injury has been suffered. However, in a case where the injury grows progressively greater due to a continuation of the tortious acts, the statute of limitations bars recovery onlv for the damages flowing exclusively from that portion of the permanent injury which was obvious more than two years prior to the commencement of the action.”

In this state it is held that where a part of a tract of land is injured by the overflow of a stream polluted from oil field operations and judgment is recovered there-fot, such judgment is a bar to a subsequent action for damage to the same land, -but the judgment is not a bar to a subsequent action for damage to other parts of the same tract of land. Comar Oil Co. v. Hackney, 119 Okla. 285, 250 P. 93.

Had plaintiff in this case,-sued and obtained judgment for damages for pollution of the stream itself as such, because of the destruction of the usefulness of the stream as a source of water for her stock or other domestic purposes, under the above rule, such judgment would not be a bar to a subsequent action for damages caused by the destruction of the soil. Neither did the fact that she failed to bring action for the ■first injury until the statute of limitations had run bar the subsequent action for the recovery of damages to other parts of the land.

Defendants’ plea of limitation is not well taken.

It is next contended that it was error for the trial court to predicate the judgment upon the judge’s personal knowledge of the value of plaintiff’s land, and upon so-called “judicial knowledge” of facts with reference thereto.

The record does not show that the judgment was based entirely upon the judge’s personal knowledge of the value of plaintiff’s land.

The findings of fact recite at length the testimony of the witnesses and the evidence upon which the findings were based. The record shows that before the trial commenced, the trial judge was requested to view the premises. The judge stated in his findings of fact that he was familiar with farm lands of the nature of plaintiff’s, having bought and sold in that immediate section during the past 15 years, and “naturally takes judicial knowledge of the vaiues of such lands as plaintiff owns.” But concludes, “Prom the evidence and his own knowledge of farm values * * * this land had a cash value in 1981 of not less than $50 per acre.”

The judgment is by no means based upon so-called judicial knowledge. It must be borne in mind that this case was by agreement tried before the court without a jury, so the trial judge was in the same position as to the facts involved as the jurors would have been had the trial been before a jury. No one could, with reason, contend that a juror in such circumstances should entirely discard any personal knowledge he might have had of the value of farm lands in arriving at the truth, especially so as here where the evidence is in conflict, and where, there is a wide variance in the evidence and great differences in values between the estimate of several witnesses. In such circumstances the trial judge may, in connection with the evidence, properly call to his aid such personal knowledge as he may have. As to the words “judicial knowledge,” it clearly refers to values of such lands as plaintiff owns. It is described as fertile, level, bottom land.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1937 OK 250, 86 P.2d 51, 184 Okla. 198, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 251, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/h-f-wilcox-oil-gas-co-v-johnson-okla-1937.