Cities Serv. Gas Co. v. Williams

• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: HURST, C.J.
• Citation: Cities Serv. Gas Co. v. Williams, 1948 OK 78, 198 P.2d 204, 200 Okla. 525 (Okla. 1948)
• Decision Date: 30 March 1948
• Docket Number: Case Number: 32942
• Parties: CITIES SERV. GAS CO. v. WILLIAMS

1948 OK 78

198 P.2d 204

200 Okla. 525

CITIES SERV. GAS CO. v. WILLIAMS

Case Number: 32942

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: March 30, 1948

Syllabus

Syllabus in Companion Case Followed.

¶0 The syllabus in Cities Service Gas Company v. Huebner, this day decided, 200 Okla. 521, 197 P.2d 985, is hereby adopted as the syllabus in this case.

Appeal from District Court, Beaver County; F. Hiner Dale, Judge.

Action by Cities Service Gas Company against Helen Williams and Charles H. Martin. From the judgment, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Glenn W. Clark, R.E. Cullison, Darall G. Hawk, and Robert R. McCracken, all of Oklahoma City for plaintiff in error.

Rex Belisle, of Oklahoma City, and Merle Lansden, of Beaver, for defendants in error.

HURST, C.J.

¶1 This case involved the same issues, was tried by the same attorneys, before the same judge and at the same term of court as Cities, Service Gas Co. v. Huebner, 200 Okla 521, 197 P.2d 985.

¶2 The condemnees in the present case were Helen Williams, owner of the three quarter sections of land across which the high pressure gas line was laid, and Charles H. Martin, brother of Helen Williams and tenant on the land at the time the strip across the same was appropriated in the fall of 1943. The commissioners appointed to appraise the damages assessed the damages to the land suffered by Helen Williams at $375 and the damages to the crops suffered by Martin at $30. These sums were paid into court on November 10, 1943. The defendants demanded a jury trial. The pipe line was laid during the first three months of 1944. The trial was held in May, 1946, resulting in a verdict and judgment for Helen Williams in the sum of $1,175 and for Martin in the sum of $460, with lawful interest on the amounts not paid in court from the date of the appropriation, from which the plaintiff has appealed.

¶3 The nature of the damages testified to was similar to that testified to in the Huebner case, above. The jury was permitted to view the premises on the request of the plaintiff. Several witnesses, most of them extensive wheat farmers residing in the vicinity of the lands, testifying for the defendants, estimated the depreciation in the market value of the 480 acres at from $10 to $15 per acre and the crop damage up to $669.60. The witnesses testified that the elements entering into the depreciation in the market value of the land were (1) erosion caused by digging the ditch, which was from six to eight feet deep, and leaving on top the infertile subsoil, (2) damage caused by patroling the line in cars and trucks which had been done at frequent intervals, (3) danger from leaks, which had occurred in several places on the farms, and (4) the leaving of pipe, chunks of oak timber...