Strauch v. Coastal States Crude Gathering Co.

424 S.W.2d 677, 28 Oil & Gas Rep. 278, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2202
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 8, 1968
Docket365
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 424 S.W.2d 677 (Strauch v. Coastal States Crude Gathering Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Strauch v. Coastal States Crude Gathering Co., 424 S.W.2d 677, 28 Oil & Gas Rep. 278, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2202 (Tex. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

OPINION

GREEN, Chief Justice.

Appellant Margaret E. Strauch, plaintiff below, filed suit alleging a continuing trespass on her property by the unlawful construction thereon by appellee in 1965 of a pipe line, seeking damages of $1400.00, and also asking for a declaration by the court that a pipe line right of way easement did not authorize the construction by defendant of additional pipe lines across her land. Ap-pellee, defendant in the trial court, answered that it was not guilty of any trespass because the subject pipe line right of way easement granted the right to construct the pipe line installed by appellee across appellant’s land. Appellant propounded two sets of interrogatories to appellee, the sworn answers to which were filed in the record, and on the basis of the pleadings, the right of way deed attached as an exhibit to plaintiff’s petition, and’ the interrogatories and sworn answers on file, each party filed a motion for summary judgment, each alleging in her or its respective motion that there was no genuine issue of any material fact. On June 6, 1966, the court rendered a partial summary judgment on the issue of liability favorable to plaintiff, but an attempted appeal by Coastal States was dismissed by this Court on the ground that such partial judgment was interlocutory and non-appealable. Coastal States Crude Gathering Company v. Strauch, Tex.Civ.App., 410 S.W.2d 945, n. w. h. After the mandate had been received by the district clerk, defendant filed its second motion for summary judgment together with a stipulation that in the event the court should hold that Coastal States did not have the right to construct the 1965 pipe line across plaintiff’s land, her damages as a result of defendant’s trespass would be the maximum sued for, to-wit, $1,400.00 1

Following a hearing, the trial court in effect set aside the interlocutory order of June 6, 1966, denied appellant’s motion for summary judgment, and rendered judgment sustaining appellee’s second motion, and held that appellee Coastal States was entitled as a matter of law under the subject right of *679 way easement grant to install the additional 1965 pipe line across plaintiff’s land and that plaintiff was not entitled to damages as alleged by her. Plaintiff has appealed from that order.

The relevant portions of the right of way grant executed in 1942 by the then owner of the land to Sinclair Refining Company read as follows:

“RIGHT OF WAY
“FOR AND IN CONSIDERATION OF THE SUM OF THIRTY-NINE & 50/100 — DOLLARS, to the grantors paid, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, A. F. SCHULZE ALBERT A. SCHULZE herein called Grantors, hereby grant unto SINCLAIR REFINING COMPANY, a Maine corporation, hereafter called Grantee, the right to lay, maintain, inspect, operate, repair, replace, and remove a pipe line for the transportation of crude petroleum, oil, gas, the products or by-products of each thereof and also water, and further the right to erect, install, maintain, inspect, operate, repair and remove telegraph and telephone lines and equipment and apparatus therefor, if grantee desires to do so, to be used in connection with any pipe line owned by said grantee on, over and through the following described land. * * *
“And for an additional consideration of One Dollar ($1.00), the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, said grantors hereby grant unto said grantee the right at any time to lay, maintain, operate, repair, replace, or remove an additional pipe line or pipe lines alongside of said first pipe line for the transportation of crude petroleum, oil, gas, the products or byproducts of each thereof, and also water on, over and through said land and grantee agrees to pay grantors for each additional pipe line placed on said land by it the sum of $39.50 on or before the time grantee commences to construct such pipe line on, over and through said land; said additional line or lines to be laid subject to the same rights, privileges and conditions as the original line.
“Grantee has the right to change the size of its pipes, the damage, if any, in making such change to be paid by the said grantee.
“ * * * the terms, conditions and provisions of this contract shall extend to and be binding upon the heirs, executors, administrators, personal representatives, successors and assigns of the parties hereto.”

This instrument was filed for record with the County Clerk of Refugio County, Texas, wherein the land is located, on February 15, 1943, and was duly recorded in the deed records of that county.

Sinclair laid the first pipe line, an 8 inch line, across this land in 1943. Appellee Coastal States by mesne assignments became the owner 2 of the easement rights in 1964, and in 1965 constructed a 12 inch pipe line across the land approximately 15 feet to the east and parallel with the first line for the purpose of transportation of crude oil. Plaintiff in the meantime had acquired title to the land involved.

There was no issue of fraud or deceit raised in appellant’s pleadings, and the principal issue on this appeal is as to the proper construction to be placed upon the provisions copied above from the subject easement grant.

Appellant assigns, as grounds for reversal, five points of error as follows:

POINTS OF ERROR
FIRST POINT OF ERROR
The Trial Court erroneously ruled that the Appellant could not recover damages for the installation of the second pipeline on appellant’s land.
*680 SECOND POINT OF ERROR

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Atmos Energy Corporation v. Charles L. Paul
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Krenz v. XTO Energy, Inc.
2017 ND 19 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 2017)
Southtex 66 Pipeline Co., Ltd. v. Spoor
238 S.W.3d 538 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2007)
Stephenson v. Vastar Resources, Inc.
89 S.W.3d 790 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Russell v. American Real Estate Corp.
89 S.W.3d 204 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Hall v. Lone Star Gas Co.
954 S.W.2d 174 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1997)
Tom Hall v. Lone Star Gas Company
Court of Appeals of Texas, 1997
McDaniel v. Calvert
875 S.W.2d 482 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1994)
Boland v. Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America
816 S.W.2d 843 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1991)
Lower Colorado River Authority v. Naumann
638 S.W.2d 195 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1982)
Northwest Pipeline Corp. v. Forrest Weaver Farm, Inc.
646 P.2d 422 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1982)
Moody v. Phillips Petroleum Co.
594 S.W.2d 189 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Morgan v. Fox
536 S.W.2d 644 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1976)
Harris v. Phillips Pipe Line Company
517 S.W.2d 361 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1974)
Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion
Texas Attorney General Reports, 1974
Wood v. COASTAL STATES CRUDE GATHERING COMPANY
482 S.W.2d 954 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
424 S.W.2d 677, 28 Oil & Gas Rep. 278, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/strauch-v-coastal-states-crude-gathering-co-texapp-1968.