Schaffner v. National Supply Co.

92 S.E. 580, 80 W. Va. 111, 1917 W. Va. LEXIS 15
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedApril 3, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 92 S.E. 580 (Schaffner v. National Supply Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schaffner v. National Supply Co., 92 S.E. 580, 80 W. Va. 111, 1917 W. Va. LEXIS 15 (W. Va. 1917).

Opinion

Ritz, Judge:

The judgment complained of upon this writ of error was rendered by the circuit court of Harrison county in an action of trespass on the ease brought for the purpose of recovering damages for injuries which the plaintiffs allege were sustained by reason of the failure of the defendant to comply with its warranties in the sale to them of certain tubing and casing for oil wells. Defendant is a large dealer in supplies used by oil and gas operators including, among other things, tubing and casing used in oil and gas wells. It has offices and stores in practically every oil field in the United States, and has been engaged in this business on this extensive scale for a number of years. The plaintiffs had a lease for oil and gas purposes on a tract of forty acres of land in Harrison county known as the Hildreth tract. They had drilled a well on this lease and at the depth of 3340 feet it produced oil in large quantities. The operations of the plaintiffs were managed largely, if not entirely, by the two partners, George A. Schaffner and Jacob P. Schaffner, both of whom had had long experience in the business of producing oil both as drillers of wells on their own account and for other people. When the first well was completed upon the Hildreth lease, which is. designated as Well No. 1, the plaintiffs desired to obtain tubing to insert therein. It appears that in [115]*115these oil wells there is inserted casing which goes around the outside of the well and protects it from cave-ins and from water; that after the well is completed it may be allowed to flow without being tubed, but as a rule such wells have in-’ serted in them a tube for the purpose of conveying the oil from the sand in which it is found to the surface. This tube is suspended from the top of the well and extends all of the way down to the sand in which the oil is found, and frequently, as was the case in this instance, oil is pumped through this tube. The two managing partners, George A. Schaffner and Jacob F. Schaffner, called .at the office of the National Supply Company in Butler, Pennsylvania, at which place one of said Schaffners resided, with a vi'ew of purchasing the tubing for this well No. 1. At that time they had a conference with one C. A. Ralph, the defendant’s manager at that point. They explained their needs to him, informing him of the depth of the well and advising him that they wanted the best tubing they could procure for this well, and suggested that they desired to procure what is termed but-end-weld-tubing, or upset-end-tubing, which appears to be a tubing that is enlarged at the joints in order to give it additional strength. Ralph informed them that the defendant did not have such tubing at Butler, and suggested that they go to Pittsburg with a view of procuring it from the defendant at that point. They acceded to Ralph’s request, and, accompanied by Ralph, went to the ■ Pittsburg office of the defendant with a view of procuring this material. At that place they were introduced to John M. Wilson, the Pitts-burg manager of the defendant. They claim that they advised Wilson of the character of their well, of the depth of it, and of their desire to secure the best tubing they could for the purpose of tubing it, and suggested this upset-end-tubing. Wilson advised them that the defendant did not sell the tubing they mentioned, but that it did have a 4-% pound special iron tubing which had been used by the South Penn Oil Company in the oil fields where plaintiffs were operating, and had given satisfaction, and recommended this tubing to the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs thereupon purchased 3340 feet of this 4-% pound special iron tubing and sufficient [116]*116easing to make up a carload. This states the transaction in accordance with the contention of thé two plaintiffs who were present, and while the material part of this is denied by Wilson, for the purpose of this review we must treat these statements as correct. Wilson claimed that he did not sell i-y2 pound special iron tubing, and that the defendant was not at that time selling iron tubing at all, and had not sold any for sometime prior to that date. As a result of this purchase there was shipped to the plaintiffs 3340 feet of tubing and sufficient casing of the description ordered to make a car load. When the tubing arrived plaintiffs inserted it in their well No. 1 and for several months it gave them no trouble. While they were operating this well No. 1 with this tubing in it, but before it began to give them any trouble, they completed two more wells on the Hildreth leáse known as Well No. 2 and Well No. 3. When well No. 2 was ready to have the tubing placed in it 'and they needed the casing for these wells, one of the plaintiffs called the office of the defendant at Salem by telephone and ordered the tubing and casing necessary, simply specifying that the tubing was to be the same as that purchased by plaintiffs at Pittsburg for their well No. 1, and specifying the size of the casing desired. Mr. Schaffner, who ordered this material over the telephone, states that he believed at the time he made the order that the tubing which had been furnished for well No. 1 was 4-% pounds special iron tubing, and that up to that time it had not given them any trouble. He therefore believed that by ordering the same kind of tubing purchased at Pittsburg he would get 4-1/2 pound special iron tubing. It does not appear in regard to the orders for the 'casing, that there was any direction given for any particular'kind except as to the diameter of the pipe desired. After this tubing had been in well No. 1 for a few months it broke and fell into the well. Plaintiffs succeeded in extracting it and after conecting it up re-inserted it in the well. In a short time it again parted, and this trouble continued until at last they were unable to extract from the well the tubing which had fallen therein, and the well was thereby rendered unfit for the purpose for which it had been used.

[117]*117Part of the casing furnished by the defendant to the plaintiffs was used in easing well No. 3. When the 5-3/16" casing was placed in the well it was found that it leaked and did not protect the well from water. The casing was withdrawn and the joints that were on the bottom were transferred to the top and the joints tightened, and it was again inserted in the well. It still continued to leak, however, and plaintiffs were unable to so manipulate this casing as to prevent the well from being drowned out. Part of the tubing purchased from the defendant was also inserted in this well and plaintiffs had the same trouble with it that they had with it in well No. 1, and in the end this well was rendered of no value as an oil well, and had to be abandoned.

Plaintiffs then brought this suit to recover damages for the injury sustained by them by the loss of these wells Nos. one and three. They base their claim for damages upon three grounds: First, that there was an implied warranty at the time the plaintiffs purchased the' easing and tubing that the same would be fit for the purpose for which it was intended; Second, that there was an implied warranty upon the part of the defendant that the material furnished by it would comply with the particular description by which it was sold; and, Third, that the defendant was guilty of fraud and deceit in furnishing to the plaintiffs steel tubing when it had sold them iron tubing.

The first question presented is, whether the plaintiffs can maintain an action on the case for. a breach of warranty and join therewith a count for deceit, as was done in this instance. In Trice v. Cochran, 8 Gratt.

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Bluebook (online)
92 S.E. 580, 80 W. Va. 111, 1917 W. Va. LEXIS 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schaffner-v-national-supply-co-wva-1917.