Sharman v. Webber Supply Co.

441 P.2d 867, 201 Kan. 507, 1968 Kan. LEXIS 392
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJune 8, 1968
DocketNo. 45,067
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 441 P.2d 867 (Sharman v. Webber Supply Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sharman v. Webber Supply Co., 441 P.2d 867, 201 Kan. 507, 1968 Kan. LEXIS 392 (kan 1968).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Kaul, J.:

This controversy stems from an oral agreement to drill and complete irrigation wells to produce water for the irrigation of four quarter sections of land in Morton County.

The action was brought by plaintiff-appellants, who are also cross-appellees to quiet the title to the four quarter sections of land and to dissolve mechanics’ liens filed thereon by defendants[508]*508appellees and cross-appellants. For the sake of brevity, the parties will be referred to as plaintiffs and defendants.

The defendants filed separate answers and cross-petitions.

The trial court heard the case without a jury and made extensive findings of fact and conclusions of law. There is little dispute concerning the facts as found. Plaintiffs concede that though there was conflicting testimony on almost all points, the facts as found are supported by competent evidence. The contentions on appeal are basically that the trial court should have found additional facts and that the facts as found do not support the conclusions of law.

We shall summarize the findings and conclusions of the trial court which have a bearing on the issues involved in this appeal and cross-appeal.

Plaintiffs, Sharman and the two Rapstines, were the owners of the four quarters of land in question. Sharman had full authority from the other owners to enter into contracts pertaining to the development of irrigation on the land.

Defendant Juel, doing business as the Juel Water Well Drilling Company, was engaged in the business of drilling water wells for irrigation purposes.

The defendant Webber Supply Company, Inc., referred to hereafter as Webber, was engaged in the business of test pumping irrigation wells and in selling pumping equipment. Kenneth Schofield was the manager of Webber’s pumping department.

Leonard Gepner was engaged in the business of drilling test holes to be used in locating irrigation wells.

In February 1965, Sharman and Juel entered into an oral agreement for the purpose of producing water to irrigate plaintiffs’ land. Juel was to drill and complete usable wells capable of producing not less than 800 gallons of water per minute of usable irrigation water for the price of $12.50 per foot. A completed well consisted of furnishing and installing the casing, gravel packing, filling of slush pits and cleaning up the land disturbed, together with the drilling of the well. The location and depth of the wells was to be determined by the parties, based upon test holes drilled by Gepner who was to be paid by Sharman. Webber was to do the test pumping which was to be paid, as the trial court found, by Sharman.

Operations were commenced on May 15, 1965. Two wells were drilled and completed to the satisfaction of plaintiffs on the North[509]*509east Quarter of Section 33 and the Southeast Quarter of Section 2. Sharman paid Juel at the rate of $12.50 per foot for these two wells and also paid Gepner for the test hole drilling. Sharman also paid $250 and the cost of fuel used for the test pumping and purchased from Webber the pumping equipment to put these two wells in production. There is no dispute as to the productivity and allocation of cost for these two wells.

Juel next drilled a well on the Northeast Quarter of Section 15 which was test pumped by Webber and produced only 300 gallons of water per minute. Sharman and Juel agreed this well was not usable and Juel made no charges for his drilling. Webber billed Sharman $275.74 for test pumping and fuel on this well. Sharman denied Webber’s bill and contended that Juel agreed to pay for the test pumping on nonusable wells. The trial court found against Sharman on this point.

Drilling was next commenced on the Northwest Quarter of Section 33 and the operations on this quarter are the subject of the controversy between Sharman and Juel and also between Sharman and Webber, with the exception of one test pumping on the Northeast Quarter of Section 15.

The first well drilled on the Northwest Quarter of Section 33 test pumped 1100 to 1400 gallons of water per minute but produced so much sand that the parties agreed it was not a usable well. The well was test pumped two more times by Webber but was not found to be satisfactory to either Sharman or Juel. The casing was pulled from the No. 1 well and well No. 2 was started, but due to “caving in” problems, this well was also abandoned by agreement. A third well was then drilled to a depth of 352 feet and was completed as a well capable of producing 600 gallons of water per minute after being acidized by, and at the expense of, Juel. This third well was also test pumped twice by Webber. The five separate test pumpings (3 on No. 1 and 2 on No. 3) on the Northwest Quarter of Section 33, together with one test pumping on the Northeast Quarter of Section 15, constitute Webber’s claim against plaintiffs and the basis of its mechanic’s liens. As we have noted, the basic dispute between Sharman and Webber is whether Juel was to pay Webber for test pumping on all nonusable wells—plaintiffs claimed they were only obligated to pay for test pumping on usable wells.

Preparatory to the drilling of the three wells on the Northwest [510]*510Quarter Section, fourteen test wells were drilled by Gepner. After the drilling of No. 3 well Gepner, on November 19, 1965, commenced and drilled a “deep test hole” to a depth of 600 feet. All fifteen of these test holes, drilled by Gepner, were billed to and paid by Sharman. During the efforts to bring in a usable well on the Northwest Quarter of Section 33, Sharman and Juel had several conversations in which they discussed the feasibility of drilling other test holes and wells at a deeper depth or at other locations on the quarter section. In the meantime, a maize crop was maturing on the quarter section involved.

Juel checked the deep hole test and was of the opinion it showed too much sand to be a good location for a usable well. On November 28, Juel called Sharman, who was in Amarillo, Texas, at the time, and reported the sand conditions of the deep test hole. During this telephone conversation Sharman told Juel “just as soon as Gene got the maize off and wouldn’t ruin any more ground, we will go in and see if we can find another test along the line somewhere.”

The trial court found that at this juncture Juel did not want to start another well because he needed more time to analyze the deep test hole cutting and did not want to destroy maize which was ready to cut, and that Sharman, during the autumn months, became more anxious to get a usable well on this quarter section.

On December 4 a telephone conversation was had by Juel and Schofield, with Gepner present, in the Webber office at Ulysses and Sharman and Frank Rapstine, on extension telephones, at Amarillo, Texas. By this time, as the trial court found, the drilling of the three wells on the quarter section had become costly to Juel and the drilling of the fifteen test wells had become costly to Sharman. Juel refused to drill a well and guarantee 800 gallons of water at the location of the deep test hole, and stated that he thought additional deep tests should be drilled to determine whether a usable well could be drilled along the submerged water line running diagonally across the quarter section. Sharman said he could not use a small well. In the course of the telephone conversation tempers flared.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
441 P.2d 867, 201 Kan. 507, 1968 Kan. LEXIS 392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sharman-v-webber-supply-co-kan-1968.