Rhodes v. International Paper Co.

• Decision Date: 01 February 1932
• Docket Number: 30860
• Citation: 139 So. 755,174 La. 49
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: RHODES et al. v. INTERNATIONAL PAPER CO

139 So. 755

174 La. 49

RHODES et al. v. INTERNATIONAL PAPER CO

No. 30860

Supreme Court of Louisiana

February 1, 1932

Appeal from Fourth Judicial District Court, Parish of Morehouse; J T. Shell, Judge.

Action by Mrs. Nettie Rhodes and others against the International Paper Company. Judgment for plaintiffs, and defendant appeals.

Judgment set aside and rendered.

Madison & Madison, of Monroe, for appellant.

Newton & Newton, of Monroe, for appellees.

OPINION

OVERTON, J.

Mrs Nettie Rhodes and her six children are the owners of approximately 342 acres of land in Morehouse parish. Mrs. Rhodes is the owner of an undivided half interest in the land, and is entitled to the usufruct of the remaining half, owned in indivision by her children.

The land is located in a straight line some eight or ten miles, and by water some fifteen or eighteen miles, from defendant's pulp mills in Bastrop. All of the land is low. Boeuf bayou traverses it, and, in its course there, subdivides itself into shallow channels, later uniting again into one channel. For time immemorial, to say the least, by far the greater part of the land has been overflowed by heavy spring rains and by heavy freshets. About 70 acres of the tract of 342 acres is tillable. The remainder of the tract, which is lower, and contains basins, is timbered land. This part is valuable only for timber purposes, and, to some extent, for purposes of pasturage. Sales have been made, from time to time, of the merchantable timber on it. The cypress that was there has been removed, and, as we appreciate it, some of the hardwood. However, there remains uncut a not inconsiderable part of the hardwood, consisting of pin oak, tupolo gum, and other species. The timber on the land has been dying during the past five or six years. The land that is tillable has not been rented since 1924, although it was rented prior thereto, and although efforts have been made to rent it since.

A few years ago the Bastrop Pulp & Paper Company, which later changed its name to the Southern International Paper Company, and was later succeeded by the International Paper Company, the defendant herein, erected pulp mills at Bastrop. In the manufacture of the pulp, the Bastrop Pulp & Paper Company and its successor used chemicals. These companies emptied the waste waters from their mills into Stalkingheadcreek, whence they go into Black bayou, and thence into Boeuf bayou, which traverses plaintiffs' land. Plaintiffs attribute the injury to their land, the loss of rents, and the destruction of their timber to the chemicals in these waste waters, and demand compensation of defendant for the damages sustained. These damages they itemize as follows: For permanent damage to land, $ 15,000; for loss of rent or crops for the years 1927 to 1929, inclusive, $ 2,250; and for damages to timber $ 900 -- making a total of damages demanded of $ 18,150.

Defendant besides answering plaintiffs' demand, filed, among other pleas, the prescription of one year. The trial court sustained the plea of prescription as to all damages occurring to the timber, and arising by reason of the loss of crops and rents, more than one year before the institution of the present suit. As to the loss of crops and rents, not prescribed by one year, the court found that the evidence is too uncertain and conjectural to support a judgment in favor of plaintiff. As to the timber, the court found that some of it was dead, but it failed to find that it died as a result of chemicals contained in the waste waters from defendant's mills, and it also failed to find, which the evidence suggested was possible, that the cause of the death of the timber was salt contained in water, which flowed into Boeuf bayou from gas wells, but it found that the timber died from the constant inundation of the land on which it stood, brought about by an unusual, unnatural, and excessive quantity of water, occasioned by the combined waters of defendant's pulp mills, of the gas wells, and the sewerage system of Bastrop, no one of which sources was capable of itself of causing the inundation resulting in the death of the timber. The court also found that 15,000 feet of the timber, which it valued at $ 2 a thousand feet, died from this cause within one year prior to the institution of this suit, and rendered judgment for plaintiffs against defendant, on this item, for $ 30. The theory upon which defendant was held liable on this item was that it was a contributor to the tort, and liable in solido for the damage. The court also found that 42 acres of the land, which constitutes a part of the timbered land, was rendered useless to plaintiffs by reason of its inundation. It valued this part of the land at $ 9.50 an acre, finding it to be worth $ 399, and rendered judgment for plaintiffs therefor on the same theory that it did for the damage to the...