People v. New York Carbonic Acid Gas Co.

Decision Date23 November 1909
Citation90 N.E. 441,196 N.Y. 421
PartiesPEOPLE v. NEW YORK CARBONIC ACID GAS CO.
CourtNew York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department.

Actions by the People of the State of New York against the New York Carbonic Acid Gas Company, against the Geysers Natural Gas Company of Saratoga Springs, against the Lincoln Spring Company, and against the Natural Carbonic Gas Company. From judgments of the Appellate Division (119 N. Y. Supp. 1151), affirming judgments for plaintiff in each action, defendants appeal. Reversed, and new trial ordered.

See also, 128 App. Div. 42,112 N. Y. Supp. 381; 115 N. Y. Supp. 1137; 118 N. Y. Supp. 1131; 119 N. Y. Supp. 469.

These actions were brought to have the defendant in each restrained from the further commission of certain acts alleged to be wrongful. The complaint in each action, so far as material to be stated, in substance, alleges the existence in the rocks, which underlie the town and village of Saratoga Springs, of a supply of carbonic acid gas and of natural mineral waters, holding in solution natural mineral salts and an excess of carbonic acid gas; that the pressure exerted by the confined gas tends to expel the waters through the natural vents or openings in the rocks, and to cause them to issue naturally from the surface of the ground, at different places, as natural mineral springs; that these springs are widely known and resorted to for their therapeutic value as remedial agents, and their waters are bottled and sold throughout this country and elsewhere; that large sums of money have been invested by the owners of the springs, in their development, and by the inhabitants of the town in the construction of buildings for the entertainment of visitors and to meet their needs and necessities; that the springs are dependent upon the existence of the pressure exerted by the carbonic acid gas confined in the rocks; that the defendant, as the owner of neighboring lands, beneath whose surface percolate large quantities of such mineral waters, flowing from the same general source as the natural mineral springs aforesaid, and connected therewith as part of the same system, maintains an establishment, with machinery and apparatus, for the purpose of extracting from these waters the excess of natural carbonic acid gas and of compressing it into liquid form for commercial purposes; that, through wells bored into the rocks beneath the surface and with powerful pumps, the defendant has produced an accelerated, or unnatural, flow of the waters, by reason whereof the natural flow from the mineral springs in the town is impeded, diverted, and endangered, and the quantity of the natural carbonic acid gas diminished; that the acts of the defendant do not subserve any use connected with the enjoyment and usefulness of the land as land, and by affecting the natural flow from the mineral springs have caused irreparable damage to the people of the state, to the owners of the mineral springs, and to other persons who have invested moneys in buildings for the reception and care of health-seeking visitors; that the defendant in prosecuting its business commits a waste of the mineral waters, and its acts constitute an unreasonable use of its property and a wrongful diversion of, and interference with, the said waters and gases, and that carbonic acid gas could as economically be produced with the same machinery by artificial means. It is further alleged that the defendant's aforesaid acts are in violation of chapter 429, p. 1221, Laws 1908, entitled ‘An act for the protection of the natural mineral springs of the state and to prevent waste and impairment of its natural mineral waters.’

The answers of the defendants in these actions, in substance, admit that, underlying the surface of the ground in the town and village of Saratoga Springs, there exist carbonic acid gas and mineral waters, holding in solution mineral salts and an excess of carbonic acid gas, which are of therapeutic value; that they were maintaining and operating upon their lands, near the village, establishments for the purpose of extracting from such waters the excess of natural carbonic acid gas; that they compress, liquify, and sell the same ; that for their purposes they have bored wells into the rocks beneath, and that by the aid of pumps they were drawing waters therefrom. They deny that there is any connection between the springs, or wells, on their premises and other mineral springs in the town; or that the wells are dependent upon the same source of supply; or that they have, by pumping, produced an unnatural flow of waters, or of gas, from their wells; or that they have impaired, diverted, or endangered the natural flow from any other mineral spring in the town; or that the plaintiffs, or the other persons referred to in the complaint, have been injured by reason of any of their acts; or that their acts constitute an unreasonable use of the said mineral water, or gas, or an interference with the same to the plaintiffs' damage, or that of any one else; or that carbonic acid gas can be artificially produced for commercial purposes as economically as from the mineral waters upon their premises. All allegations of damage to the other springs, or to the property rights of others, are particularly denied by the answers. The defendants then set forth, at some length, and justify, the nature of the business in which they have been engaged, and in which large sums of money have been invested. They allege the necessity of sinking wells into the rock in order to reach the waters, and of the use of pumps in order to raise them to the surface; that such pumps do not attract the waters from the adjoining lands; that, by their use, the natural flow of water and gas upon their premises in not exceeded, and that there has been but a reasonable use of their property. The defendants also allege that chapter 429 of the Laws of 1908 is unconstitutional and void, in that it attempts to create an unreasonable and arbitrary classification of wells.

Upon the trial of these actions at the Special Term, motions to dismiss the complaints, upon the ground that no cause of action had been stated and of the unconstitutionality of the act, were denied and the rulings were excepted to. The defendants offered evidence to show the effects of pumping from wells, and of pumping generally, and that no injury was caused by their acts to any other spring or well; but the evidence was excluded, and exceptions were taken. Judgments were ordered for the plaintiffs, restraining the defendants from pumping from any well, made by boring into the rock, that class of mineral water holding in solution natural mineral salts and an excess of natural carbonic acid gas, for the purpose of extracting and vending such gas as a commodity, otherwise than in connection with the mineral water and other mineral ingredients with which associated. These judgments were affirmed by the Appellate Division, in the Third Department, and the defendants have further appealed to this court.Edgar T. Brackett, Alton B. Parker, and Guthrie B. Plante, for appellants.

Edward R. O'Malley, Atty. Gen. (D. E. Brong, Charles C. Lester, and Nash Rockwood, of counsel), for the People.

GRAY, J. (after stating the facts as above).

It is difficult to understand upon what ground the evidence offered by these defendants was excluded, unless it be the interpretation given to our decision of the case of Hathorn v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 194 N. Y. 326, 87 N. E. 504,128 Am. St. Rep. 555. No opinion appears to have been expressed below, and I think we must presume it to have been considered that the statute, which authorized the plaintiff to maintain the actions (Laws 1908, c. 429), as construed by this court, absolutelyprohibited the pumping of the mineral waters in question, as practiced by the defendants in the conduct of their particular business. The decision of the trial court, as it is formulated in the judgment roll, finds that the acts of the defendants in pumping from their wells mineral waters, for the purpose of extracting and vending the carbonic acid gas, separately, as a commodity, were contrary to the provisions of the act, and are ‘injurious to the people of the state of New York, and tend to the waste and impairment of the natural mineral waters of said state.’ That is to say, if the judgments in these actions are sustained, the legislative enactment of 1908 operated to prohibit, as unlawful, all pumping from wells, bored into the rock, of mineral waters holding in solution mineral salts and an excess of carbonic acid gas, for the purpose of extracting, liquefying, or vending, separately, such gas as an article of commerce, and the prohibition is to be enforced irrespective of whether the use by the defendants of their properties was a reasonable one, or not, relatively to the legal rights of other landowners. That this view of the arbitrary action of the statute must have obtained below seems evidenced by the finding, which I have just quoted from, as to the effect of the acts complained

I think that the opinion of this court in the Hathorn Case, supra, must have been greatly misapprehended, both as to the basis upon which it was rested, and as to the principles sought to be established thereby. In that case it was certainly intended to determine the constitutionality of the act of 1908, and that an action brought by taxpayers (who were also spring owners), upon a complaint making like charges against one of these defendants, might be maintained under the provisions of the act, as well as at common law; but it is to be particularly observed that, in that case, we had before us in the record the admission by demurrer of the material facts pleaded in the complaint. A careful reading of the opinion will, in repeated instances, show that in reaching conclusions attention was called to the effect upon construction of the admission...

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