Lowe v. Pure Oil Co.

260 F. 704, 171 C.C.A. 442, 1919 U.S. App. LEXIS 2102
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedApril 16, 1919
DocketNo. 1682
StatusPublished

This text of 260 F. 704 (Lowe v. Pure Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lowe v. Pure Oil Co., 260 F. 704, 171 C.C.A. 442, 1919 U.S. App. LEXIS 2102 (4th Cir. 1919).

Opinion

PRITCHARD, Circuit Judge.

This was a suit instituted in the Northern district of West Virginia on the equity side of the docket. Bill was filed for an injunction to restrain defendant from trespassing, and also to restrain him from any proceeding, either in law or in equity, for the removal from the creek bed of all pipe lines operated by gravity maintained by common carrier in the extensive transportation of crude oil, and to quiet title.

The plaintiff the Pure Oil Company is a corporation created under the laws of the state of New Jersey, and duly authorized to transact business in the state of West Virginia, and the defendant is a citizen and resident of West Virginia.

The line, four inches in diameter, and in which the 26 rods in question is included, is a part of a system 20 miles long, operated for the past 17 years in piping oil for the public generally from the fields in the vicinity of Jacksonburg to tanks at Pine Grove, and laid in the bed of the South fork of Big Fishing creek, the location of fhe pipe line in the creek bed enabling the oil to flow by gravitation instead of by a mechanical system, which would be far more expensive; and from the tanks at Pine Grove the oil is piped by pressure to refineries at a distance.

Plaintiff alleges the following grounds as a basis for the relief sought to be obtained: (a) Diverse citizenship, and value of its entire system of gravity oil lines, exceeding $3,000; (b) want of title on part of defendant ; (c) right conferred by act of Legislature of 1872-73 (chapter 192), declaring the creek in question a public highway; (d) title in plaintiff by prescription matured by actual possession taken and kept by virtue of said statute, and also under claim of ownership and right, without objection, and with acquiescence, as against defendant and his predecessors.

The defendant moved to dismiss the bill on the ground that the facts alleged did not entitle plaintiff to the relief sought. The answer admits the passage of the legislative act, but says it is declaratory of the common law, and became inoperative, according to its own provisions, within two years after its passage, • and therefore conferred no right on plaintiff to lay pipe in the South fork of Big Fishing creek, a floatable stream; and it is further averred that plaintiff never applied to, or had the permission of, any authority, public or private, to lay; [706]*706the line in question; further, that there is no corporation in West Virginia vested with power to exercise the right of way over any public highway without the permission of some public authority, and any one attempting to establish such right of way over any public highway without the permission of some public authority is a trespasser and liable to criminal prosecution therefor; that the law forbidding the use of a public highway except by such permission is more stringent than the law forbidding the use of private property for public use without payment of compensation; that the creek bed was included in 170 acres of land granted by I. D. Morgan by deed of January 25, 1901, to A. C. Ballouz” who subsequently granted to John M. Lowe, defendant, two parcels of the same by separate deeds dated December 28, 1906 (six lots), extending back almost to the top of the north bank of the creek opposite the point in question, but conceded to be outside the bed, and the other, dated August 11, 1913, for the “strip of land” or creek bed, and under which Lowe, the appellant, bases his claim and title.

The bill alleges adverse possession, and the answer avers the “adverse possession of plaintiff and its lessor, from 1901 to the fall of 1913, of the line in the creek bed.” Notwithstanding the admission thus contained in the answer, defendant insists that such possession, under the circumstances, does not apply to the bed, or even the side Of the creek bed, and that the line as then laid was in the creek bed owned by A. C. Ballouz, and in the south side, remaining there until defendant bought the bed of the creek from Ballouz, but that line was relaid on top of defendant’s land on the opposite or north bank, over his objection, and after his purchase of the creek bed, but before August 11, 1913, the date of his deed.

The answer denies any right of the plaintiff to maintain and operate the line in the creek bed.

It is conceded that tire Producers’ & Refiners’ Pipe Line Company has been and is now engaged in operating pipe line and transporting crude oil. It is further admitted that such line is operated by gravity, and is of great importance, use, and benefit in the economical transportation of oil, as alleged in the bill, but that such facts are immaterial.

[ 1 ] First, it is insisted by defendant that the court below was without jurisdiction, inasmuch as the amount involved in the controversy was not $3,000 in excess of cost and interest. This is based upon the theory that the amount involved should represent only the actual cost of removing this line from the south side of the creek to the north side of the creek.

As we have stated, it is alleged in the bill that the value of the entire system of gravity oil lines exceeds the sum of $3,000, and that, owing to the occupancy of the south side of the creek by the railroad in constructing its line, it is in .such condition that it would be impracticable to locate the pipe line on that side, and that it was for this reason plaintiff was compelled to change its line so as to operate it for the purpose for which it was intended.

[707]*707It is insisted by plaintiff that the removal of a part of this line would destroy the entire gravity system in the creek beds, among other thing's necessitating its removal from tanks at Pine Grove to Jackson-burg, the main connecting lines above Jacksonburg, also necessitating an alteration in a multitude of smaller lines connecting each well with the main line, at a great loss and expense, and thus either destroy the business or necessitate the construction of a pressure system on other lands, involving the purchase of new rights of way, for a distance of more than one mile, over a hill. It is contended that the construction of such line would cost $2,500 for labor done, $3,000 for pump station, and $3,000 for additional pipe, costing in the aggregate from $8,-000 to $10,000. This, we think, should be considered in estimating the amount involved in this controversy.

In addition to this phase of the question, it is insisted by counsel for plaintiff that “where a particular matter of itself less than jurisdictional amount or value involves a right or estate as the subject of dkspute, which right or estate depends upon the determination of the controversy, the value of the right or estate will fix the jurisdiction.”

In Montgomery’s Manual of Federal Procedure, § 174, c. 8, it is said:

“Generally speaking, where there is a definite amount that can be determined as being in dispute between the parties, this will fix the jurisdiction.”

In view of what we have said as respects this point we think that the court below was warranted in holding that it had jurisdiction.

[2]

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Bluebook (online)
260 F. 704, 171 C.C.A. 442, 1919 U.S. App. LEXIS 2102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lowe-v-pure-oil-co-ca4-1919.