Northup v. Eakes
| Decision Date | 19 November 1918 |
| Docket Number | 9183. |
| Citation | 178 P. 266,72 Okla. 66,1918 OK 652 |
| Parties | NORTHUP et al. v. EAKES et al. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied Feb. 11, 1919.
Syllabus by the Court.
Where although concert is lacking, the separate and independent acts or negligence of several combine to produce directly a single injury, each is responsible for the entire result even though his act or neglect alone might not have caused it.
Where several persons and corporations owning and operating separate oil and gas leases negligently allowed crude oil to escape from their respective leases into a nearby creek where it became ignited and was carried by the wind and the natural flow of the stream upon the barn of another, situated upon such stream which barn together with its contents, was thereby totally destroyed, they are jointly and severally liable for the wrongdoing, and the injured party may, at his option, institute an action and recover against one or all of those contributing to his injury.
In order to warrant a finding that negligence, or an act not amounting to wanton wrong, is the proximate cause of any injury, it must appear that the injury was the natural and probable consequence of the negligence or wrongful act; and that it ought to have been foreseen in the light of the attendant circumstances.
[Ed. Note.-For other definitions, see Words and Phrases, First and Second Series, Proximate Cause.]
In the circumstances of this case the act of the defendants in negligently allowing the crude oil to escape into the stream was the proximate cause of the injury, although the oil was ignited by unknown means and carried against the premises of the plaintiff by the wind and the natural flow of the stream.
Error from District Court, Okmulgee County; Chas. G. Watts, Judge.
Action by Frank D. Eakes and another against George Northup and others. Demurrer to second amended petition overruled, and judgment for plaintiffs, and Northup and others bring error. Affirmed.
Fred M. Carter, of Okmulgee, for plaintiffs in error.
C. B. McCrory and George C. Beidleman, both of Okmulgee, and Embry, Crockett & Johnson, of Oklahoma City, for defendants in error.
This was an action commenced by the defendant in error Frank D. Eakes against the plaintiff in error, for the purpose of recovering damages for loss of his barn by fire.
Hereafter, for convenience, the parties will be designated "plaintiffs" and "defendants," respectively, as they appeared in the trial court.
Originally the action was against George Northup, T. A. Johnson, O. F. McConnell, N.E. Traywick, and a large number of other persons and corporations. The plaintiffs alleged that each of the several defendants named in said petition were the owners of separate oil and gas leases, and as such owners were engaged in producing therefrom crude oil; that said defendants in the operation of said oil leases permitted crude oil to flow from their respective leases into a small creek above the premises of the plaintiff, which crude oil flowed down said creek upon the premises of said plaintiff and in close proximity to his barn; that on the 14th day of March, 1914, the oil on said creek became ignited, and the fire thus started was carried against the barn of the plaintiff by the wind and the natural flow of the stream, completely destroying the same together with its contents.
Thereafter all of said defendants except the Twin State Oil Company filed separate demurrers to plaintiff's petition upon the ground, among others, that there was a misjoinder of causes of action set out in plaintiff's petition, which demurrers were sustained by the trial court.
Thereafter plaintiff filed his amended petition, making the same parties defendants, which amended petition was substantially the same as the original petition, except in one paragraph it was alleged:
"That the said defendants, and each of them, on and prior to said date, willfully, carelessly, and negligently and unlawfully and concurrently permitted the oil, waste matter, and inflammable products from their said wells on said leasehold estates to escape therefrom and from their said premises, respectively, and to flow concurrently into the said creek or stream, and the said inflammable matter from their respective premises combined and together ran down, through, and over the premises of the plaintiff, Frank D. Eakes," etc.
Thereafter the defendants filed separate demurrers to said amended petition, which demurrers were also sustained. Thereafter the plaintiff filed his second amended petition against George Northup, T. A. Johnson, O. F. McConnell, O. P. Baylon, and N.E. Traywick, which petition is substantially the same as the original and amended petition, except it omits the description of the oil and gas mining leases operated by the other defendants under the former petition and omits any allegations as to any persons, companies, or corporations causing or permitting waste oil to flow into said creek, except plaintiffs in error.
Thereafter these defendants filed their demurrer to said second petition, which was overruled, after which the issues were made up and the cause proceeded to trial, which trial resulted in a judgment for the plaintiff for the full amount of the loss occasioned by the destruction of his barn and its contents. It is to reverse this judgment that this proceeding in error was commenced.
Counsel for defendant state their grounds for reversal in their brief as follows:
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