Adamson v. Highland Corp.
| Decision Date | 24 January 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 201,201 |
| Citation | 80 N.M. 4,1969 NMCA 7,450 P.2d 442 |
| Parties | James B. ADAMSON, an individual, d/b/a Adamson Hot Oil Service, Appellee, and French Tool and Supply Company, Inc., a corporation, and Universal CIT Corporation, a corporation, Appellees, v. HIGHLAND CORPORATION, a corporation, Stevenson Tank Company, Inc., a corporation, and L. V. Pennington, Appellants. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of New Mexico |
Defendants have appealed from a judgment entered against them in favor of plaintiff for damages allegedly sustained by reason of the negligence of defendants.
Our disposition of defendants' first point relied upon for reversal disposes of all other points and contentions asserted by the parties.
Defendants' position is that the trial court erred in refusing to direct a verdict for them, and subsequently in refusing to enter a judgment in their favor notwithstanding the verdict, because the evidence fails to establish that their negligence was a proximate cause of the damages. We agree.
There is no dispute on the issue of negligence. The sole issue is the sufficiency of the evidence to support a determination that the negligence was a proximate cause of the fire which resulted in the destruction of plaintiff's property.
The facts are:
(1) On March 6, 7 and 8 of 1966, defendants installed a 'heater treater' or 'heater settler,' hereinafter called 'settler,' on an oil lease, and connected it to a separator, which was located just to the south of the settler and which in turn was connected with an oil well on the lease.
(2) A vent line, which carried gas and water from the settler, was extended in an easterly direction to a point approximately 55 feet from the fire box in the settler. Defendant Highland was to dig a pit and extend this line into that pit. The pit was dug on March 10, 1966, and was located about 100 feet to the east of the settler and approximately 50 feet east of the end of the vent line. Defendant Highland failed to extend the vent line to the pit.
(3) The settler was put in operation shortly after its installation, including the lighting and maintenance of the fire in the fire box, and it continued in operation until after the fire on March 15, 1966, which destroyed plaintiff's property.
(4) In addition to the settler, the vent pipe therefrom, and the separator, there were two 500 barrel storage tanks situate in the area. One of these tanks was located approximately 65 feet north of the settler, and this will be referred to as the west tank. The other, or east tank, was situate directly to the east of the west tank. The distance between these tanks is not given, but it is apparent from one of plaintiff's exhibits that it was about 10 feet. (5) On March 15, defendant Pennington made arrangements with plaintiff to take a portable 'hot oil unit' onto the lease for the purpose of treating oil in the west tank. This oil had not passed through the settler. The settler and the hot oil unit serve the same purpose, and that is the separation of the oil from the water, gas and other wastes in the oil by the use of heat.
(6) Plaintiff's operator did not reach the lease with the unit until just as it was getting dark.
(7) Plaintiff's operator was to treat the oil in the west tank. In locating the hot oil unit, which was mounted on a truck, he made an effort to so locate it that gas which might be coming from the two storage tanks would not likely be carried by any air movements toward the unit, and, thus, become ignited either by the fire in the fire box of the hot oil unit or by the exhaust from the motor of the truck on which it was mounted. In order to determine the direction and extent of any air movement, he tossed a handfull of dirt in the air and observed the movement of the dust therefrom. He concluded there was 'just a light breeze' blowing from the northeast toward the southwest.
(8) The overall length of his unit was about 30 feet. He located it to the south of the east tank headed in a somewhat southeasterly direction. The front end of the truck so located was approximately 6 feet from the open end of the vent line which extended easterly from the settler. This open end of the vent line was a little east of the east tank, and was several feet south of that tank. The open end of the vent line was southeast of the front of the truck, and, as already stated, was about 6 feet distant from the front of the truck.
(9) The motor of the truck continued to run because it was the source of the power for the pump which was to circulate the oil from the west tank through the hot oil unit and back into the west tank.
(10) Plaintiff's operator placed hoses from the rear of the unit into the oil of the west tank and began the circulation of the oil through these hoses and through the unit. He went to the rear of the unit after pumping had commenced and checked his lines and connections for leaks. He found none. He then proceeded to an instrument panel situate on the left side of the unit and immediately to the rear of the cab of the truck. By the use of a button or switch on this panel, he started a small motor which was located immediately below the unit. This motor forced fuel under pressure into the fire box and powered a blower which drew air into the fire box. He lighted the fire in the fire box by use of another button or switch on the panel. The flame of the fire was kept low at first. Shortly thereafter he walked around the front of his truck to a point on the right side of the unit and immediately to the rear of the truck cab for the purpose of viewing the flame through a small window. He then returned to the instrument panel on the left side of the truck by again walking around the front of the truck. Upon reaching the instrument panel he turned the valve, which controlled the fuel in the fire box, so that it was on full force. By this time he had been at the site from 20 to 30 minutes.
(11) Almost immediately after turning the valve, he observed a fire break out at the settler. This fire moved rapidly and close to the ground from the settler in a northerly and slightly easterly direction, and within a matter of seconds reached the rear of the truck. From there it moved in a westerly and northerly direction to the wall of the west tank and up that wall.
(12) He promptly turned the valve so that the fire in the fire box of the hot oil unit was extinguished. He then started to get into the truck to move it, but apparently became frightened and ran to the east. He turned off the pump on the oil well which had been pumping oil into the separator. He then started walking toward town for help.
(13) Up to the time he left the site, there had been no fire toward the front of the truck and none in the area of the open end of the vent line. At the time he left there was fire only at the rear of the truck and around the hoses leading from the unit to the west tank, and on the west tank.
(14) About an hour later, when he returned with the plaintiff, the entire truck was burning, as was the gas coming from the vent on top of the west tank. Defendant Pennington also arrived at this time and he noticed a flame at the open end of the vent line. This flame was about 6 inches to a foot in length, and it went out of its own accord.
(15) There is no question some gas escaped from the open end of the vent line, because one of the purposes of the line was to carry gas from the settler. The quantity of this gas varied from time to time. However, there is no evidence as to the amount of such gas escaping therefrom at any time, and plaintiff's operator smelled no gas in twice passing within 3 or 4 feet of the end of the vent line within approximately a minute of the time of the fire. Although the odor of this gas was not strong, it was not odorless.
(16) The plaintiff and a witness for the defendants testified that a gas fire moves, or flashes back, from the point of ignition toward the source of the gas.
A reading of the entire transcript, and particularly the court's instructions, leaves no doubt that plaintiff was contending defendants were negligent in permitting gas to escape from the open end of this uncompleted vent line, and that this negligence was a proximate cause of the fire which resulted in the destruction of the truck and hot oil unit. Unless the evidence substantially supports a finding that gas from this source in some way reached the settler, where it was ignited, then there was a failure to establish a causal relationship between defendants' negligence and the fire which consumed plaintiff's property.
The pertinent portions of the court's instructions to the jury are as follows:
'Negligence resulting from a violation of a governmental regulation is no different in effect from that resulting from other acts or omissions constituting negligence, and in each case the negligence is of no consequence unless it is a proximate cause of the damage found by you to have been suffered by the plaintiff.
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