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

1940 OK 169, 101 P.2d 1050, 187 Okla. 382, 1940 Okla. LEXIS 251
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 2, 1940
DocketNo. 28073.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1940 OK 169 (H. F. Wilcox Oil & Gas Co. v. Juedeman) 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. Juedeman, 1940 OK 169, 101 P.2d 1050, 187 Okla. 382, 1940 Okla. LEXIS 251 (Okla. 1940).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

W. A. Juedeman, plaintiff below, commenced this action April 4, 1934, to recover damages in the sum of $15,410, alleged to have been caused by overflow of 134 acres of his land from a creek running through the land in which the water had been polluted by salt water, oil, and other poisonous substances allowed to flow from oil and gas wells operated by defendants, Wilcox Oil & Gas Company and 15 other oil companies and an individual.

Plaintiff acquired the land January 21, 1932. It lies within the valley of Little Deep Fork creek, which flows through said land. About 70 acres of the land is subject to frequent overflows from the creek. The petition of plaintiff, after al *384 leging the location of oil and gas wells operated by defendants within the watershed of said creek and above plaintiff’s land, and that defendants had for two years next preceding the filing of the petition allowed large quantities of oil, salt water, base sediment, and other deleterious substances to escape from their wells and flow into said creek and its tributaries and down and across plaintiff’s said land; alleged that numerous times during said two years heavy rains fell within the area causing said creek to overflow its banks and the waters thereof contaminated with oil, salt water, and to spread out over said land and thoroughly contaminate and impregnate all of said land, thereby injuring said land for farming purposes, killing a large number of valuable pecan trees growing on said land and thereby diminishing the market value of said land to the extent of $15,410.

Defendants filed separate answers, and in addition to other defenses, pleaded the statute of limitations, alleging that if any injury had been done to the land in question as a result of the escape of oil, salt water, etc., into said creek, the cause of action therefor accrued more than two years before the commencement of this action, and was barred by the statute of limitations of subdivision 3, sec. 101, C. O. S. 1931.

A supplemental joint answer by 16 of the defendant companies set up as an additional defense that plaintiff and his predecessors in title had contributed to the injury, in that they had kept and maintained on said land, for a long time prior to the commencement of this, action, a “slush pit” in which was deposited a large quantity of oil, base sediment, and other oil well refuse; that said “slush pit” and its contents is located on higher ground than the pecan groves or trees, and that during rains and overflows, large quantities of such refuse escaped from said slush pit and flowed over the land; that plaintiff also owned, operated, kept, and maintained an oil and gas well located on said premises from which he permitted salt water, oil, and other oil field refuse to escape and flow over said land and commingle with any polluted water that was alleged to have been allowed to escape from defendant’s well and flow into said creek and over plaintiff’s land, and that plaintiff had thereby in whole or in part contributed to the loss, damage, and injuries, if any, to his said land. Plaintiff replied by general denial.

Trial was had to a jury resulting in a verdict and judgment in favor of plaintiff in the sum of $1,500, and defendants appeal.

The petition in error contains 15 specifications of alleged error. Specifications 5, 7, 8, 9, and 15 go to matters not in any way involving the question of the statute of limitations, and are expressly waived by defendants in their brief.

All other specifications are claimed to involve questions going to the plea of statute of limitations, and are presented under one general proposition.

The parties entered into written stipulation that defendants and each of them, prior to and during the two years next before the commencement of this action, separately owned and operated oil and gas mining leases located as alleged in the petition; that Little Deep Fork creek is subject to overflow during heavy rains, and at such times the water from the creek covers a portion of plaintiff’s land, and:

“3. That during all times for the period of ten years next prior to the date of the filing of plaintiff’s petition herein said Little Deep Fork Creek was in a state of pollution as a result of the escape of salt water from operations conducted on said watershed.
“4. That salt water escaped from tne leaseholds operated by the defendants during the two year period next preceding the said filing of plaintiff’s petition and contributed to the pollution in said Little Deep Fork creek.
“5. That the escape of salt water from the leaseholds of said defendants into said stream has been, is and will be a necessary incident to the operations of *385 said leasehold estates and in no wise attributable to actual negligence of said defendants, or either of them, or any negligence other than such as the law may imply from the fact of escape.
“6. That as an incident to the operation of leaseholds on said watershed the production of salt water has so saturated the lands upon which operations have been had that said stream will be polluted for an indefinite period independent of the results of continued operations contributing thereto.”

It was further stipulated that both parties might introduce such evidence as they might desire as to amount, quantity, and quality of salt water that may have escaped and run into said stream during and before the two-year period and as to its effect upon plaintiff’s premises both before and during the two years next preceding the filing of the petition.

Defendants moved for a directed verdict upon the ground that the facts stipulated, considered in connection with plaintiff’s petition, showed on their face that plaintiff was not entitled to recover.

This motion was overruled, and defendants saved exceptions.

Defendants concede that with a single exception, hereinafter noted, the facts in this case are like those in the cases of H. F. Wilcox Oil & Gas Co. v. Johnson, 184 Okla. 198, 86 P. 2d 51, and H. F. Wilcox Oil & Gas Co. v. Joe Allen, 184 Okla. 196, 89 P. 2d 55, so as to bring this case within the doctrine of those cases.

They then contend that the rule in the Johnson Case conflicts with the general law, and cite a number of cases seeking to have the Johnson and Allen Cases, supra, overruled.

The contention of defendants is that because the stipulation of facts in this case conclusively shows that the stream running through plaintiff’s land had been thoroughly polluted by the escape of salt water from defendants’ wells, for ten years before this action was commenced, and that the escape of salt water is and was a necessary incident to the operation of said leasehold estates and in no way attributable to actual negligence, the source or cause of the pollution of the stream is in law considered as unabatable and permanent; that the statute of limitations has run against any action for damages on account of injury to the land caused by such pollution. In other words, they contend that the structure or source of the pollution being permanent or unabatable, there is and has been a basis of a single action for permanent injury, and that the cause of action therefrom accrued long before plaintiff acquired his land.

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Bluebook (online)
1940 OK 169, 101 P.2d 1050, 187 Okla. 382, 1940 Okla. LEXIS 251, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/h-f-wilcox-oil-gas-co-v-juedeman-okla-1940.