Magnolia Petroleum Co. v. Williams
| Decision Date | 20 December 1954 |
| Docket Number | No. 39418,39418 |
| Citation | 76 So.2d 365,222 Miss. 538 |
| Parties | MAGNOLIA PETROLEUM COMPANY v. J. W. WILLIAMS. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Brunini, Everett, Grantham & Quin, Jackson, Earl A. Brown, Dallas, Tex., John M. Grower, Jackson, Charles B. Wallace, Dallas, Tex., for appellant.
Woodrow C. Jones, Waynesboro, for appellee.
Magnolia Petroleum Company, appellant, drilled two oil wells in 1948 in the Yellow Creek Field in Wayne County, Mississippi. These two oil wells produced about twelve barrels of salt water each day which was emptied into a disposal pit located 991.6 feet northwest of the water well of J. W. Williams, appellee. This water well was drilled in December, 1950 to a depth of 67 feet, and produced good water which was used for human and animal consumption. On April 1, 1951, and thereafter, the water from appellee's well was salty--tasted like brine or other minerals--and was unfit for human or animal consumption. Williams sued the appellant for damaging his well, alleging that appellant negligently constructed and maintained the salt water disposal pit in that it caused the earth in the vicinity to become saturated with salt and other impurities.
There were gravel pits in the vicinity of appellee's water well to a depth of 80 feet, and the earth in the area contained much sand and gravel. There was gravel under appellant's salt water disposal pit. Appellant's salt water disposal pit was coated with an asphalt bottom, which was the residue of the first oil produced from one of the oil wells, and which oil was mixed with mud and unsaleable. This oil was bled into the pit and burned, leaving the asphalt residue. The jury was justified in finding that there was seepage of salt water from appellant's salt water disposal pit, but the extent of the leakage, and how much of the salt water evaporated from the pit, was not shown.
Appellee's water well was located in an oil field and there was an oil well on each forty acres of land in the surrounding area. There were four or five salt water disposal pits surrounding appellee's water well, including the one owned and operated by appellant. These pits, other than the one belonging to appellant, were within a distance of a quarter of a mile to three-fourths of a mile from appellee's water well. Salt water from three oil wells was emptied into one of these other disposal pits. One of these other salt water disposal pits, over which appellant had no control and did not own, had a gravel bottom and the salt water ran directly into the gravel bed thereunder. One of these salt water disposal pits, not operated by appellant, had been in operation for two years prior to the drilling of appellant's first well. The record is silent as to the amount of salt water emptied into the disposal pits operated by parties other than appellant.
It was shown by actual measurement of appellee's surveyor that the ground surface at appellant's salt water disposal pit was about five feet lower than that of appellee's water well; and that there were one or more draws or drains between the salt water disposal pit and appellee's well so that there could not have been any surface drainage from the pit to the water well. The direction of surface drainage was northeastward in the area of appellant's disposal pit and appellee's water well.
The jury found for the appellee in the sum of $1,250.
Appellant assigns as error the refusal of the lower court to grant a peremptory instruction because of the failure of the plaintiff to prove proximate causation. Our decision turns on this question.
We must consider the evidence and all reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom most favorably to the appellee; but when this is done, it does not fairly or reasonably prove that the appellant was responsible for the wrong. When inferences must be relied upon to establish a fact necessary to rendering a judgment such...
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CHAPTER 1 THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING MULTIPLE SURFACE USE ISSUES
...588. The causal nexus problem between oil and gas operations and groundwater pollution is not new. See Magnolia Petroleum Co. v. Williams, 76 So.2d 365, 4 O.&G.R. 243 (Miss. 1954)(Insufficient evidence to prove that brine caused either surface or groundwater damage as a matter of law). [77]......
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THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING MULTIPLE SURFACE USE ISSUES
...588. The causal nexus problem between oil and gas operations and groundwater pollution is not new. See Magnolia Petroleum Co. v. Williams, 76 So.2d 365, 4 O.&G.R. 243 (Miss. 1954)(Insufficient evidence to prove that brine caused either surface or groundwater damage as a matter of law). [77]......