Nazworthy v. Illinois Oil Co.

1936 OK 150, 54 P.2d 642, 176 Okla. 37, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 90
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 11, 1936
DocketNo. 22620.
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 1936 OK 150 (Nazworthy v. Illinois Oil Co.) 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
Nazworthy v. Illinois Oil Co., 1936 OK 150, 54 P.2d 642, 176 Okla. 37, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 90 (Okla. 1936).

Opinion

WELCH, J.

This action was commenced by plaintiff in error to recover from the defendant in error the sum of $320 for and on account of the alleged taking and appropriating, without his consent, a strip of land one mile long and of sufficient width in which to lay a six-inch oil line under the state highway, along the north side of plaintiff’s land.

It appears that plaintiff’s land lies south of and abutting State Highway No. 33, running east and west in Payne county, along the township line between townships 17 and 18 north.

In the year 1913 the Empire Refining Com-jpany constructed an oil pipe line along said highway 28 or 30 feet south of the center of said highway. About the year 1921, it sold and transferred said pipe line to defendant, Illinois Oil Company. In the year 1927, the State Highway Commission decided to grade, drain, and pave said highway, and declared it necessary to widen the right of way from 66 feet to 78 feet, and in carrying out said plan it contracted with plaintiff for, and! plaintiff sold and conveyed to the state of Oklahoma, a perpetual easement across, over, and along a strip of land 39 feet wide along the north side of his premises, including the 33 feet originally comprising the south half of said highway, and an additional six feet. Thereafter, the State Highway Commission ordered and directed defendant oil company to move its line over to the south and along and upon said six-foot strip. This the oil company undertook to do. About the time the defendant company had completed the removal of its pipe line, the State Highway Commission determined it was necessary to further widen the right of way to about 98 feet, calling for a further or additional strip of ten feet in width on each side, or for another ten feet off of plaintiff’s land. Amicable agreement therefor could not be made, and the Highway Commission instituted condemnation proceedings under its right of eminent domain, which resulted in a payment to plaintiff for this latter strip of the sum of $100, and $50 for moving his fence.

Thereupon the Highway Commission directed defendant company to remove its line over to and upon this ten-foot strip, which it did, finally placing its line a few feet north of plaintiff’s fence, and upon the strip of land taken from him by the condemnation proceedings by the State Highway Commission. Not having consented to the taking, plaintiff contends he is entitled to compensation from the oil company (in the sum sued for). He alleges that the usual and customary price paid for pipe line right of way not along a highway, but across lands privately owned, is $1 per running rod, or $320 for the mile, and he seeks recovery here upon that basis.

The removal and relocation of the pipe line was done under a license granted by the State Highway Commission by L. C. Barnard, division engineer.

There appears little controversy as to the facts. The court did submit the question to the jury as to who owned the strip of land at the time the pipe line was last moved.

The court further instructed the jury that:

“If you find from the evidence that at the time this pipe line was moved over to the *38 plg.ce where it is at the present time, that the state had, through condemnation proceedings of the Highway Department, acquired an easement for highway purposes and at that time their easement was 100 feet wide, then under such circumstances you find your verdict for the defendant in this cgse.”

The verdict and judgment were for defendant, and plaintiff appeals.

We do not understand the plaintiff to contend that the pipe line was removed and placed upon plaintiff’s land before the condemnation money had been paid to plaintiff or into court for him.

The issues were somewhat clouded by evidence offered by plaintiff tending to prove that the pipe line as finally laid was not within the ten-foot strip of land condemned by the State Highway Commission, and this question was submitted to the jury. But under the pleadings and evidence a finding that the pipe line was not laid upon the strip condemned could hardly be sustained. The verdict, being a general one, must be construed as a finding against plaintiff on this particular question. The petition alleged that the pipe line was laid upon that particular strip, and no amendment was made or offered alleging otherwise.

The inevitable conclusion here is that the pipe line is laid upon and along the ten-foot strip condemned by the Highway Commission for highway purposes.

The sole question, then, is whether an abutting landowner is entitled to additional compensation for a new and additional servitude or burden, when an oil pipe line is laid along and under the highway on land formerly conveyed by the owner or condemned for highway purposes. If such owner is entitled to such additional compensation, then the trial court erred in his instructions and the judgment must be reversed. If such owner is not entitled to such additional compensation upon the theory of an additional servitude or burden, then the judgment of the trial court is correct and should be affirmed.

As to oil pipe lines such as are here involved, we find no ease in this state holding to the one or other rule, although there doubtless are hundreds and perhaps thousands of miles of oil pipe line laid a’ong and within public highways in this state.

And it is worthy of note that although such lines have been laid for many years, no claim of the right to such additional compensation has been presented for adjudication until about the year 1930, when this claim was first presented.

The question in similar situations has been before the courts of other jurisdictions in several cases. As a general proposition, it may be stated that where the land of an individual is once taken, under proper authority, for a public use, and full compensation is paid the owner for a perpetual easement, the owner is not entitled to additional compensation when the same land, or a part thereof, is afterwards appropriated under legislative authority and subjected to another or to further public use of a like kind.

As applied to the construction of a telephone line upon a rural highway, the Supreme Court of Kansas considered this question in McCann v. Johnson County Telephone Co., 76 P. 870. In the body of the opinion it was said:

“The purpose of the highway is the controlling factor. It is variously defined or held to be for passage, travel, traffic, transportation, transmission and communication. It is a thoroughfare by which people in different places may reach and communicate with each other. The use is not to be measured by the means employed by our ancestors, nor by the conditions which existed when highways were first devised. The design of a highway is broad and elastic enough to include the newest and best facilities of travel and communication which the genius of man can invent and supply.”

It is then stated that the theory is well presented in Cater v. N. W. Tel. Exchange Co., 60 Minn. 539, 63 N. W. 111, 28 L. R. A. 310. from which is quoted with approval the following:

“If there is any one fact established in the history of society and the law itself, it is that the mode of exercising this easement is expansive, developing and growing as civil-isation advances.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1936 OK 150, 54 P.2d 642, 176 Okla. 37, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nazworthy-v-illinois-oil-co-okla-1936.