Cities Service Gas Co. v. Christian, 37535

• Decision Date: 22 October 1957
• Docket Number: No. 37535,37535
• Parties: CITIES SERVICE GAS COMPANY, a corporation, Plaintiff in Error, v. John CHRISTIAN, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Page 1113

316 P.2d 1113

1957 OK 247

CITIES SERVICE GAS COMPANY, a corporation, Plaintiff in Error, v. John CHRISTIAN, Defendant in Error.

No. 37535.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

Oct. 22, 1957.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. It is a well settled rule in this state that evidence is sufficient to sustain a judgment if there is any evidence reasonably tending to prove, either directly or immediately, or by permissive inference, the essential facts to sustain the verdict and judgment rendered thereon. Shell Pipe Line Corp. v. Curtis, Okl., 287 P.2d 681.

2. Record examined and evidence found to support verdict and judgment and trial court's instructions to fairly cover applicable provisions of law and to present the issues properly for the jury's consideration.

Appeal from the District Court of McClain County; Elvin J. Brown, District Judge.

Action to recover damages for loss of cattle due to alleged negligence of defendant corporation. Defendant appeals from verdict and judgment in plaintiff's favor. Affirmed.

O. R. Stites, Gordon, J. Quilter, Oklahoma City, Hardin Ballard, Purcell, for plaintiff in error.

George Bingaman, Purcell, for defendant in error.

PER CURIAM.

The plaintiff, John Christian, had a three-year agricultural lease for pasture purposes only on certain lands in McClain County. The defendant, Cities Service Gas Company, procured a pipe line easement across the same lands from the owner and, with the consent of plaintiff, constructed a traversing pipe line in December of 1953. The line was buried below plow depth except for a gate valve excavation of some 8 feet by 14 feet, uncovered, but enclosed by a pipe fence. Plaintiff's petition alleged that in connection with the maintenance and repair of the pipe line, the defendant negligently left some poisonous substances used in repair work upon the premises; that plaintiff's cattle ate of the substances and as a result died. Plaintiff recovered a judgment on the verdict of a jury for damages suffered by the cattle loss, and defendant appeals.

Parties are referred to herein as they appeared in the trial court.

Plaintiff's evidence reasonably tends to establish that on February 23, 1955, defendant's workmen, with trucks and equipment, entered the premises and performed certain repairs upon the gate valve enclosure; that plaintiff was at this time pasturing fifty-seven cows, a bull and twenty-two calves on the land; that on the day following completion of the repair by defendant's employees, plaintiff found several dead cattle and within the next day or two had lost twenty cows and eleven calves. Plaintiff caused chemical analysis to be made of the stomach contents of one cow which showed the presence of lead floride, identified in the chemist's report as a poisonous substance used extensively as a rodent poison and considered to be a 'violent poison.' An investigation to determine the source of the poison and the apparent cause of the deaths developed the following facts: poison from the feed furnished the cattle was excluded; plaintiff found a one-gallon paint bucket containing an orange colored paint a short distance from the gate box where defendant's employees had been working which was of the same type and color as that used by the defendant company and of the color of stenciled letters on a pipe in connection with the gate box. Stencil paper was found on the premises. The lid to the paint bucket had smudges of black paint thereon, which was she same kind of paint as that used on the gate box. The lid was off the orange paint bucket, which had been turned over, and a scum line therein indicated it had at that time contained approximately one and one-half quarts of paint. There were cattle tracks around the area where the bucket was found, and certain of the cattle, visibly affected but not yet dead, were observed, and the symptoms exhibited by them were described as being, in the opinion of the witnesses, that of cattle subjected to poisoning. A sample of the paint found in the bucked showed it to contain lead. While there was testimony on...