Rudco Oil & Gas Co. v. Lofland

1943 OK 76, 135 P.2d 494, 192 Okla. 256, 1943 Okla. LEXIS 124
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 2, 1943
DocketNo. 31134.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1943 OK 76 (Rudco Oil & Gas Co. v. Lofland) 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
Rudco Oil & Gas Co. v. Lofland, 1943 OK 76, 135 P.2d 494, 192 Okla. 256, 1943 Okla. LEXIS 124 (Okla. 1943).

Opinion

CORN, C. J.

This is an action for wrongful death instituted by the administrator against intestate’s former employer. The parties will be referred to herein as they appeared in the trial court. The plaintiff sought recovery on grounds of negligence, that the defendant failed to exercise reasonable care in furnishing the deceased a safe place to work and reasonably safe machinery and appliances with which to do the work and reasonably competent servants to assist him in the work.

The defendant was the owner and operator of certain leasehold estate for oil and gas purposes in Seminole county, Okla., and the deceased was employed as a pumper. There was installed on the lease a central power plant equipped with a 25-horsepower Superior engine. In order for the pumper to start the engine he had to roll the flywheel forward. The engine was equipped with what is called a wico, very similar to the magneto on the old style Ford automobile, and in order to start this engine it was necessary to roll the flywheel forward, which acted as a crank on the same principle as a crank of the Ford automobile before the self-starters were installed.

Howard Allen, deceased, was and had been for several years prior to June 2, 1941, a pumper of a producing oil and *257 gas lease owned and operated by Rudco Oil & Gas Company, defendant, on which date he sustained fatal injuries while attempting to start a 25-horse-power Superior gas engine.

A part of his duty was to keep the power going. With a proper gas supply and the engine in good repair it was seldom necessary to start the engine and to encounter the dangers thereof, because the engine ran continuously night and day. But, because of inadequate gas supply and defective ignition the engine stopped many times daily, necessitating repeated startings by the pumper, requiring him to climb upon the big wheel as many times, thereby increasing and multiplying the dangers incident to his usual employment.

The power was operated by natural gas from the wells on the lease, although there was available for use a commercial supply that could be and at times was purchased from a gas company. The gas from the wells on the lease was inadequate to maintain sufficient pressure or supply to keep the engine going, and consequently the engine would stop several times daily.

It was the duty of the deceased, according to the testimony of his foreman, to report all needed repairs such as this to the foreman, whereupon a “trouble shooter” would take care of it or the parts replaced by good ones by another employee whose duties were to look after just such matters.

Two or three days before the accident, the deceased complained on two different occasions to the foreman of his employer company about the wico or ignition on the engine and the gas pressure, and both times the foreman or superintendent promised to remedy the situation, and that he would supply him with another wico within a few days and for him to go ahead and he would have a man out there in a day or so with a wico. This, the deceased continued to do, but the repairs or new wico were not made or supplied within the time.

On the 2nd day of June, 1941, the engine on the lease stopped running. Deceased attempted to start it and climbed upon the big wheel in the usual way, with one foot in the spoke, holding the rim with his hands and pulled down, when the engine back-fired spinning the wheel backward, throwing him upward and backward to the concrete floor, fatally injuring him, resulting in death on the 16th day of September.

Counsel for defendant present their assignments of error under two propositions, to wit:

(1) “The verdict is not sustained by the evidence.”
(2) “The court erred in his instruction.”

We agree with the defendant that the deceased assumed the ordinary risks incident to his employment or work. But in this case there is evidence that would justify a finding by the jury that a condition was created by the acts and omissions of the defendant which multiplied and increased the hazards and dangers of deceased’s employment and work beyond the scope or sphere denominated ordinary risks. Had the deceased been injured as the result of the ordinary danger, if any, of the starting an effi-‘ cient engine fueled with an adequate supply of gas, we would be confronted with a different situation. But such is not the case, for he was operating an engine which by reason of either the fuel supply or defective ignition, or both, was repeatedly stopping, necessitating as many startings. This was an abnormal condition. An engine in good working condition properly fueled would not stop, but would keep going, eliminating the necessity of climbing upon the big wheel many times daily to start same, confronting the dangers incident thereto, and especially the dangers and hazards created by a defective wico or ignition.

Men experienced in pumping oil field leases and familiar with machinery of this type testified that low gas pressure and loose and worn parts such as were in this wico would cause the engine to stop and back-fire when being started. This created an extraordinary risk and one that deceased did not assume.

*258 Deceased complained about the gas supply and defective wico to H. B. Jones, the superintendent of the defendant oil company; and was instructed to continue with the work and do the best he could with it until it could be repaired with a new wico.

The defendant company therefore had knowledge of the conditions but failed and neglected to remedy them within time.

This court in the case of St. Louis & San Francisco Ry. Co. v. Stitt, 108 Okla. 42, 233 P. 1073, in syllabus 1, held:

“Generally the master’s duty to the servant requires of the former reasonable care and skill in furnishing safe machinery and appliances and keeping such machinery and appliances in safe condition, including the duty of making inspection and tests at proper intervals, and that the master’s responsibility for the safe condition of his instrumentalities attaches at the first moment when they are put into use and continues as long as they remain in use.”

In syllabus 2 this court said:

“Such being the character of the master’s responsibility, the existence of the duty of inspection is a necessary consequence of the fact that the master’s obligations cannot be adequately discharged unless during the entire period of which that responsibility is predicated, he takes notice of whatever a reasonably prudent person would have ascertained under the particular circumstances which happen to be involved.”

In syllabus 3 the court said:

“When the appliance or machinery furnished an employee is at all complicated in character or construction, the employer is charged with the duty of making such reasonable inspection as is necessary to detect defects, arising necessarily from the ordinary use of such instruments.”

Whether the appliance or machinery furnished is reasonably safe or not is a question of fact, to be determined by the jury.

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Related

Deshazer v. Tompkins
404 P.2d 604 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1965)
Cities Service Oil Company v. Merritt
1958 OK 185 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1958)

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Bluebook (online)
1943 OK 76, 135 P.2d 494, 192 Okla. 256, 1943 Okla. LEXIS 124, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rudco-oil-gas-co-v-lofland-okla-1943.