Coronado Oil Co. v. Grieves, 5571

• Decision Date: 15 March 1982
• Docket Number: No. 5571,5571
• Citation: 642 P.2d 423
• Parties: CORONADO OIL COMPANY, a Colorado Corporation, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. John A. GRIEVES, Joann Grieves, Madeline Grieves, Thomas B. Grieves, Marie Grieves, Ruth K. Graham, Neal Reisland, Hazel Reisland, The Federal Land Bank of Omaha, and all Unknown Owners Who May Claim an Interest in the Subject Matter of this Action, Appellees (Defendants).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Page 423

642 P.2d 423

CORONADO OIL COMPANY, a Colorado Corporation, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. John A. GRIEVES, Joann Grieves, Madeline Grieves, Thomas B. Grieves, Marie Grieves, Ruth K. Graham, Neal Reisland, Hazel Reisland, The Federal Land Bank of Omaha, and all Unknown Owners Who May Claim an Interest in the Subject Matter of this Action, Appellees (Defendants).

No. 5571.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

March 15, 1982.

J. John Sampson, Newcastle, and Joseph M. Montano (argued), and Vicki J. Fowler, Gorsuch, Kirgis, Campbell, Walker & Grover, Denver, Colo., for appellant.

Chester S. Jones, Newcastle, and Jon Mattson (argued), Deadwood, S. D., signed the brief on behalf of appellees Grieves.

Thomas L. Whitley (argued), Newcastle, for appellees Reislands.

Before ROSE, C. J., and RAPER, THOMAS, ROONEY and BROWN, JJ.

RAPER, Justice.

This is the second time for this condemnation case to be on appeal. See Coronado Oil Company v. Grieves, et al., Wyo., 603 P.2d 406 (1979). Following remand for further proceedings, a jury trial eventually ensued to determine just compensation for the taking by appellant (Coronado) of an easement or way of necessity across lands of the appellees (Grieves) (Reisland). The jury returned a verdict finding just compensation to be $132,000.00 for a road easement across the Grieves property and $161,000.00 for a road easement across the Reisland property. The trial judge entered a judgment on the verdict accordingly. A supersedeas bond has been posted by appellant.

On appeal, appellant raises as issues:

"I. Did the Court commit prejudicial error by allowing opinions of just compensation which were not tied to a 'before and after' valuation of the property and were based on speculation and conjecture?"

Our answer will be yes.

"II. Was it prejudicial error to allow the jury to consider testimony regarding trespass and other tortious acts by third parties?"

Our answer will be yes.

"III. Was it prejudicial error to allow the jury to consider testimony which was speculative and conjectural; evidence which was not tied to activities of the Our answer will be yes.

Plaintiff; and evidence of personal inconvenience?"

"IV. Did the Court commit prejudicial error in admitting an agreement between an oil company and Defendant for payment for the use of Defendant's roads as evidence of the difference between the value of Defendant's property before the taking and the value after the taking?"

Our answer will be yes.

"V. Do the actions of the trial court in inviting a motion to strike Plaintiff's expert witness's testimony; striking said testimony because it 'shocked the conscience of the court'; reversing its ruling and reinstating said testimony after the witness was no longer available for examination; and refusing to grant a mistrial constitute prejudicial error?"

Our answer will be yes.

"VI. May an award which exceeds the testimony of any witness be allowed to stand?"

Our answer will be no.

"VII. Were the cumulation of errors so prejudicial that justice requires a new trial?"

We need not answer because any one of the foregoing errors would justify reversal and remand.

We will reverse and remand for a new trial on the issue of just compensation.

When this case was first before the court, it was held that Coronado was authorized to condemn a right-of-way across the Grieves and Reisland lands to reach its federal oil and gas leases situate in Weston County. After the previous decision by this court, access was acquired by posting a bond, Rule 71.1(d)(2), W.R.C.P. Appraisers were appointed, Rule 71.1(e), W.R.C.P. and they made, subscribed and filed with the clerk of the district court a certificate of their ascertainment and assessment of compensation proper to be made to the defendants, Rule 71.1(h), W.R.C.P. The return of the appraisers fixed compensation to be paid for the Grieves land at $15,201.25 and for the Reisland land, $15,865.00. Coronado, not satisfied with the award, filed a timely request for trial by jury, Rule 71.1(j), W.R.C.P. The jury trial resulted in the verdict and judgment heretofore mentioned.

The right-of-way condemned, 30 feet in width, embraced 9.61 acres of the Grieves property and 14.92 acres of the Reisland property and constituted:

" * * * an easement of access or private way of necessity for the exploration, development, production and marketing of oil and gas pursuant to the terms of Plaintiff's federal oil and gas leases, including the use thereof as a mine truck haul road."

The date of taking was fixed at November 10, 1980, when Coronado was granted possession prior to the trial. The verdict was dated June 12, 1981. The judgment on the verdict was entered July 2, 1981.

The landowners in eminent domain cases have the burden of proving the just compensation to which they are entitled. State Highway Commission v. Laird, Wyo., 426 P.2d 439 (1967); Wilson v. United States, 350 F.2d 901 (10th Cir. 1965). This is the general rule. 5 Nichols on Eminent Domain, § 18.5 (3rd ed. 1981). The narrative which follows is an abstract of the testimony and evidence produced. Parts, where noted, will be omitted during this phase of the opinion but will be later picked up during the discussion and disposition of the issues.

GRIEVES LAND

The easement across the Grieves land is over existing roadways for 13,621 lineal feet (about 2.4 miles) used previous to the date of taking by Coronado and about four other oil companies as well as the Grieves in their ranching operation. The road has been there since 1950 when first built by the ELK Company. A new road has been or will be built by Coronado for a distance of 340 feet on the Grieves property.

Grieves testified that the road goes through where they put baby calves in the spring and cows to finish calving. For summer pasture, cows have to cross the road to get to water. Grieves indicated that they Another problem arises because horses are bothered by the dust. Dust gets on the hay and it will not grow. The dusty hay cannot be fed to horses. Animals get sick from dust and have eye problems from irritation.

use up energy, causing weight loss, because when traffic is on the road they will turn around and go back. Besides, cows get hurt by trucks and die. In the winter the traffic scares them away from the draw where they are being fed. Dehorned cattle frightened by traffic can get up, run and bleed to death.

There is a loss of carrying capacity because cattle won't graze near a road. Grieves described an occasion when a truck because of its length could not get off the county road through the cattle guard so it went through his pasture and damaged the fence. He claimed such occurrences are common. He also related how two Coronado trucks got off the road and had gotten stuck.

Sightseers have been known to come on the ranch to watch drilling operations, then talk about it at the Tavern. One time a photographer came onto his land and was taking a picture of a broken down wagon. There is noise twenty-four hours a day. Grieves' life style is disrupted by the activity.

Coronado objected to the admission of Exhibit L, a letter contract between Grieves and Western Production as to one well, which provided an initial payment of $1,920, an additional $1,920 when a well went into production, and another $768 per year thereafter based on the number of rods. The objection claimed that this evidence was not pertinent to a before-and-after valuation. Grieves had some sort of an oral agreement with Western that he would receive a "1% carried working interest," if available, for each additional well; otherwise, the same agreement was to prevail as to all other wells.

From M & K, another oil company, Grieves received $1,000 for the first well, but that company elevated the road to his house and plowed snow for that winter. For the second well, Grieves had a "1% carried working interest." He claims to receive about $60.00 per month per well under some sort of understanding not in writing. Grieves stated he did a lot of things verbally.

In his testimony Mr. Grieves, based upon information he had, projected that the leased acreage of appellant was such that on the basis of 40-acre spacing, appellant would have 30 wells to drill and service. He figured the traffic by the number of trucks necessary for the several operations involved in drilling, servicing, hauling of oil, visits by salesmen and investors, etc., and assumed 20 to 30 years for the life of the wells. He noted that the traffic kicked up dust which settled on his lands adjacent to the road. However, it should also be noted that he acknowledged there was already dust from the county graveled road adjoining his lands by which the condemned road was approached.

Grieves figured he would be damaged $5,000 per year for thirty years-$150,000 by Coronado alone because of its multiplication of an existing problem. His testimony in this regard will be later covered in greater detail.

Grieves did not know how many cattle he had on the ranch between 1971 and 1979 but estimated the current number at around 500. He could not remember how much he paid for part of the ranch bought two or three years previous nor how many acres he acquired but he did eventually remember it to have been a sale from his brother under an agreement that his brother would get half of anything over the price that he paid for it. The price was $38.00 per acre.

The district engineer for the State Department of Environmental Quality testified on behalf of the Grieves. On the basis of information supplied by Grieves he estimated, based upon a six-day time period, that during the drilling of one well, the traffic would cause 11.3 tons of dust to fall on the ground, and 5.3 tons would remain suspended in the air. During a typical day A banker-rancher testified that oil field traffic over a county road affected his horse ranching business. He had a small place so horses were unable to get away from it. His meadow had...