Peters v. Platte Pipe Line Co.

305 S.W.2d 413, 1957 Mo. LEXIS 667
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedSeptember 9, 1957
DocketNo. 45709
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 305 S.W.2d 413 (Peters v. Platte Pipe Line Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Peters v. Platte Pipe Line Co., 305 S.W.2d 413, 1957 Mo. LEXIS 667 (Mo. 1957).

Opinion

STOCKARD, Commissioner.

Defendant’s motion, made pursuant to Section 509.290 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S., to dismiss plaintiff’s petition on the ground of res judicata was sustained by the trial court, and plaintiff has appealed from the ensuing judgment. Jurisdiction of this appeal is in this court because plaintiff seeks to set aside three right-of-way easements. Robb v. N. W. Electric Power Cooperative, Mo.Sup., 297 S.W.2d 385 [1].

In, 1951, plaintiff and his wife, from whom he is now divorced but who has conveyed to plaintiff all of her interest in the lands involved, executed and delivered to defendant three instruments by which they granted to defendant a right-of-way by easement over and across the lands described therein to construct and operate a pipe line for the transportation of liquids and gases.

Plaintiff’s petition is in one count. When the allegations therein are given a liberal interpretation it appears that plaintiff seeks to have the easements set aside because of fraud in the procurement in that (1) defendant’s agent stated that it would not under any circumstance pay plaintiff more than $1 per rod for right-of-way for its pipe line, and would pay plaintiff $1 per rod for a right-of-way to be 40 or 50 feet in width; (2) plaintiff and his wife signed the easements because they relied on defendant’s representations regarding the width and location of the right-of-way; and (3) defendant’s agent knew that the width, nature and extent of the right-of-way was intended to be wider but fraudulently and wrongfully informed the plaintiff that it would be only 40 to 50 feet in width. Plaintiff then alleges that at the time he signed the easements they did not contain a, description of the location of the right-of-way, but after execution and delivery thereof the defendant fraudulently, wrongfully and without the knowledge or consent of plaintiff or his then wife, filled in some blank spaces and completed said easements so that as altered and changed they still failed to define and set out that part of plaintiff’s lands over which the right-of-way was to run, thereby subjecting all of plaintiff’s lands to the right-of-way. Although it is by no means clear, plaintiff apparently contends that by reason of defendant’s representations concerning the width of the right-of-way, there was an agreement or understanding that the three instruments were to be chang'ed by defendant after execution and delivery, and that defendant did not make those changes. Plaintiff also alleges that false acknowledgments were added to the easements by defendant subsequent to their execution and delivery.

We are not now concerned with the sufficiency of the petition, and by setting out what we understand to be the intended basis of plaintiff’s petition, we do not rule that the allegations are properly made or that if properly made they would authorize the relief requested. We seek only to determine from the petition what issues plaintiff intended to raise thereby.

The previous judgment which defendant contends to be res judicata was rendered in a suit between the same parties in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri. -In that [415]*415suit the complaint was in four counts, but before trial counts I and II were “withdrawn” by plaintiff and were dismissed by the court “without prejudice.” The allegations in count I were substantially the same as those in the petition in this case. Trial was had on counts III and IV, and at the end of plaintiff’s evidence the court entered judgment for defendant after directing a verdict on both counts.

Count IV was for damages for an alleged nuisance, and it is not contended that any of the issues there litigated are res judicata in this suit. In count III plaintiff alleged that he was induced to execute the easements by representations of defendant that his land was subject to condemnation and that $1 per rod was the only price defendant paid for right-of-way and this was the amount the other landowners in the area were accepting. There was no allegation that these representations were false. Plaintiff then alleged that the defendant stated that the construction of the pipe line on his property would take only a few days and such construction would be done without interference, nuisance, interruption or damage to plaintiff’s farm and to his farming operations; that defendant agreed to pay and indemnify plaintiff for and against any and all damages suffered by plaintiff as the result of the construction of the pipe line; that the construction of the pipe line caused his herd of cattle to be damaged and to depreciate in value in the sum of $15,000 and his farm and crops to be damaged in the sum of $5,000 contrary to the representations and promises of defendant made at the time plaintiff executed the easements; and that defendant has failed and refused to pay and indemnify plaintiff as agreed. The prayer was for damages in the amount of $20,000. Copies of the three easements were attached to the complaint, and each contained the provision that defendant “agrees to pay any damages which may arise to crops, buildings, drain tile, fences and timber, by reason of grantee’s operations.”

It would appear from count III that plaintiff sought to recover the damages resulting to his crops and farm by reason of the construction of the pipe line pursuant to an express written contract, and to recover the damages resulting to his livestock pursuant to an implied or oral agreement. However, this would leave the allegations that defendant represented that plaintiff’s land was subject to condemnation and that it would pay only $1 per rod for right-of-way without any readily apparent purpose. A comment by the Federal District Judge at the close of plaintiff’s evidence indicated that at least up to that stage of the trial he was of the opinion that the issues presented by count III pertained to an agreement, oral or written, on the part of defendant to pay ¡the damages suffered by plaintiff resulting from the construction of the pipe line. The judgment entered was that the “plaintiff take nothing by reason of counts III and IV of his complaint.” When, as here, it does not appear from the pleadings what matters were actually litigated and necessarily determined by the judgment, this may be shown by extrinsic evidence. Restatement, Judgments, § 68; Abeles v. Wurdack, Mo. Sup., 285 S.W.2d 544 [5], Therefore, we shall look to the evidence presented by defendant in support of its motion in an effort to determine what matters were in fact litigated and necessarily determined in the suit in the Federal Court.

At the end of his evidence plaintiff’s counsel made the following statement: “We are bringing this suit on two counts, one based on fraudulent misrepresentation of the right-of-way agreement, and secondly, we are basing a count on the theory of nuisance, and the provisions of the contract pertaining to crop damage, as we view the case, have no bearing. We have either proved that these people came in and induced Mr. Peters to sign this agreement upon the representation that any damages caused by the construction of the pipe line would be paid for, that [416]

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Bluebook (online)
305 S.W.2d 413, 1957 Mo. LEXIS 667, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peters-v-platte-pipe-line-co-mo-1957.