Wood Oil Co. v. Endicott

1951 OK 166, 234 P.2d 371, 205 Okla. 59, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 561
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 5, 1951
DocketNo. 34021
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1951 OK 166 (Wood Oil Co. v. Endicott) 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
Wood Oil Co. v. Endicott, 1951 OK 166, 234 P.2d 371, 205 Okla. 59, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 561 (Okla. 1951).

Opinion

JOHNSON, J.

Wood Oil Company, plaintiff in error, was the defendant in the trial court and Joe Endicott, defendant in error, was the plaintiff and hereafter they will be referred to as they there appeared.

In an amended petition consisting of two separate causes of action, plaintiff alleged that since the 1st day of September, 1946, the defendant had operated oil and gas leases located in sections 11 and 12, township 19N., range 7E.; that in the operation of said oil and gas leases on which were located several producing oil wells, said defendant caused water ways crossing the land owned by plaintiff to be polluted with salt water and other foreign substances; that plaintiff owns approximately 110 acres described as the W.y2N.E.y4 and W.% S.E.% N.E.% and N.W.% N.E.y4 N.EGA in section 13-T.-19N.-R.7E.; that said land is bisected by Lagoon creek which is the waterway polluted by the operation of the oil leases of defendant.

It was further alleged that the defendant wholly failed to use due care and allowed foreign substances to pollute Lagoon creek, causing damages to plaintiff in the sum of $500; that two head of his cattle of the value of $100 each died as a result of drinking the polluted water of Lagoon creek; that twelve head of his cattle lost weight resulting in damages to the extent of $25 per head, occasioned by drinking from said polluted water.

[60]*60In the second cause of action, plaintiff alleged that by reason of the foreign substances escaping from the leases of the defendant that plaintiff’s lands have been damaged to the extent of approximately $41 per acre, making the total damage to the 110 acres described above $4,510; that the 110 acres belonging to him is about evenly divided by the bed of Lagoon creek and the condition of the water in Lagoon creek is a natural and material factor in determining the value of the property and the damage thereto; that the damage is the proximate result of the careless and negligent acts of the defendant in allowing foreign substances from the defendant’s oil leases to pollute said creek.

The plaintiff prayed for a judgment for personal property loss and damage to real property in the total sum of $5,010.

Motion to strike, motion to make more definite and certain and demurrer being overruled and exceptions saved, the defendant answered reserving any rights under the motions and demurrer, and, as to the first cause of action, denied generally the allegations of plaintiffs petition. The defendant admitted that the plaintiff owned an interest in the lands in question but denied that he owned the entire fee-simple title, and admitted and asserted that the water is and was polluted for more than ten years from polluted backwater from the Cimarron river and from salt water and other foreign matters that drain into Lagoon creek and from two producing oil and gas wells located on the premises of plaintiff and from oil and gas wells located in close proximity to said Lagoon creek immediately to the west of the land of the plaintiff. The defendant specifically denied any knowledge of a claim for damages for the death or loss of weight of cattle, and alleged that if any such loss had occurred that the plaintiff contributed to such injury and damage by permitting salt water from the oil and gas wells on his premises to drain into said creek; that by reason thereof he could not recover.

The answer to the second cause of action contained the same general denial and the same assertion that the nature and extent of plaintiff’s interest in the land was unknown to defendant; but asserted that the surface and mineral rights were separate and distinct estates and had been for more than 20 years and that there was a defect of parties because the plaintiff had alleged that he was the owner in fee simple of the entire estate.

Defendant denied specifically that the pollution of Lagoon creek affected in any manner, or damaged, the mineral estate under said land; and further alleged that Lagoon creek rises in a northwesterly direction from plaintiff’s land and enters said land about one-half of a quarter of a mile from the northwest corner and flows almost directly south and a little less than a half mile where it flows into the Cimar-ron river; that the land of plaintiff lying south and west of said creek consisting of approximately 70 acres is sandy pasture land and is not and has not been for more than 10 years of a value in excess of $10 per acre; that if plaintiff’s land decreased in value from pollution such occurred more than two years prior to the filing of the action and is barred by the statute of limitations; that the pollution was from plaintiff’s premises and specifically denied that the land was or had been damaged since 1946, or decreased in value by any act of the defendant.

The plaintiff replied denying generally all allegations of the answer, but admitted that one-fourth of the royalty was owned by H. B. Schone and that plaintiff owned all of the surface rights in the land which he claimed to have been damaged by the defendant and three-fourths of the royalty interest.

Upon the issues thus joined the cause was tried to a jury which rendered a single verdict on both causes of action in a lump sum of $1,450, which the [61]*61trial court approved and rendered judgment thereon, and from an order overruling defendant’s motion for a new trial, defendant appeals.

Defendant’s numerous assignments of error are argued under two propositions, to wit: (1) There is no evidence to support a judgment for permanent damages to the real estate. (2) The plaintiff having sought recovery upon two separate and distinct causes of action, it was error for the jury to return a verdict in a lump sum.

The effect of defendant’s argument is to admit that the record sustains the judgment as to the first cause of action, but that the judgment of the trial court must be reversed as to the second cause of action with directions to the trial court to order plaintiff at his option to either file a remittitur of all of the judgment above $500 or submit to a new trial.

The defendant, in its reply brief, contends that the sole question involved in the appeal is whether the plaintiff’s pleading and evidence upon his second cause of action for damages to the real estate caused by salt water escaping from oil leased premises into a stream which bisects plaintiff’s farm is sufficient to support a verdict for permanent damages to real estate. It is assért-ed in this connection that plaintiff takes the erroneous position that the verdict for permanent damages to real estate may be sustained upon establishing that a creek is polluted with salt water and unfit for cattle to drink, although:

(a) There is no evidence of present damage to the soil, or the fertility thereof, nor to the trees, crops or vegetation on the real estate;

(b) The plaintiff’s evidence conclusively establishes that the pollution of the stream could be abated and remedied by careful and prudent operation of the oil wells on the lease, as they had been operated in the past, by pumping salt water into abandoned wells;

(c)If the oil wells are operated in a careful and prudent manner and salt water pumped into abandoned wells, the same will not escape into Lagoon creek and the water will be available for stock water within a short time.

In support of this argument, defendant cites the following cases: Union Oil & Mining Co. v. Bowman, 144 Okla. 54, 289 P. 296; Carter Oil Co. v. Means, 180 Okla. 585, 71 P. 2d 705; Sinclair Oil Co. v. Allen, 143 Okla. 290, 288 P.

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Related

Nichols v. Burk Royalty Co.
576 P.2d 317 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 1978)

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Bluebook (online)
1951 OK 166, 234 P.2d 371, 205 Okla. 59, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 561, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wood-oil-co-v-endicott-okla-1951.