Teledyne Exploration Co. v. Dickerson
| Decision Date | 25 October 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 46338,46338 |
| Parties | TELEDYNE EXPLORATION COMPANY v. Billy F. DICKERSON and wife, Nelda Dickerson. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Gibbes, Graves, Mullins & Bullock, Laurel, Marvin Oates, Bay Springs, for appellant.
Robert H. McFarland, Bay Springs, for appellees.
This is an appeal by Teledyne Exploration Company from a judgment of the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District of Jasper County awarding appellees, Billy F. Dickerson and his wife, Nelda Dickerson, damages in the amount of $1,631 for damage to their dwelling house. We affirm.
Appellees, plaintiffs in the trial court, filed suit seeking to recover damages for injury to their home alleged to have been caused by seismic operations conducted near their property by the defendant, Teledyne Exploration Company, appellant here.
Appellant answered the declaration and denied it was guilty of any negligence in its operation and affirmatively alleged that the damage, if any, to the plaintiffs' home was caused by improper construction, improper conditions, improper drainage, or an Act of God.
The proof on behalf of the appellees is sufficient to establish the following facts. In October 1969 appellant was engaged in doing seismograph work in the vicinity of appellees' home in Jasper County. They made no shots on the land of appellees, but they did explode shots on adjacent property. Mrs. Dickerson, upon seeing the crew approaching her property requested them not to explode any shots near her home. None were exploded on that day, but a few days later the crew came back and made shots on the adjacent property. Mrs. Dickerson heard an explosion which shook her house and made the windows rattle. A few days later she noticed cracks in the wall in the bedroom on the southwest corner of her home. Upon closer examination, it was found there had been extensive damage to the walls and the floor of the bedroom. A building contractor examined the house and made an estimate of the cost of repairs to restore it to approximately its former condition. His itemized estimate amounted to $1,631.50.
A trial was had and the jury returned a verdict in favor of appellees for the sum of $2,000. The trial court ordered a new trial unless a remittitur of $369 was entered. The appellees entered the remittitur, and from this judgment, this appeal is taken.
Appellant has assigned some nine reasons for reversal of this case. However, we will only discuss those which we deem merit discussion.
The principal question in this case is whether the evidence is sufficient to establish a causal connection between the explosion on the adjacent property and the damage to appellees' home. We think it was clearly a question for the jury as to whether the damage to the residence of appellees was a proximate result of the explosion by the defendant on the adjacent property. There are many conflicts in the evidence on this case, but the jury resolved these conflicts in favor of appellees. It is sufficient to say appellant exploded two shots on the adjacent property near the residence of appellees. The distance these shots were from the home of the appellees was in conflict. However, the jury could find from the evidence in this case that the force of the vibrations of one of these shots caused the house to shake and the windows to rattle, thereby damaging appellees' house.
Appellant contends the appellees failed to prove it was guilty of any negligence in making the shots on the property where they had a right to make them. This same argument was made in Central Exploration Co., Inc. v. Gray, 219 Miss. 757, 70 So.2d 33 (1954), where a home was damaged under similar circumstances. In Gray we adopted the rule of absolute liability where, without fault, a person explodes dynamite or other dangerous explosives on the land of an adjoining owner with that owner's consent, and property of his neighbor is damaged by the vibration and concussion of the earth due to the explosion. We held the imposition of absolute liability was in accord with the general principles of law, and the person causing the explosion should bear the loss, rather than a third person who had no relation to the explosion other than that of injury.
Mrs. Dickerson, who was home at the time of the explosion, testified that her home shook and the windows rattled, and this was sufficient to show a causal connection between the acts of the appellant and the resulting damage to the home of the appellees. This testimony distinguishes this case from Western Geophysical Co. of America v. Martin, 253 Miss. 14, 174 So.2d 706 (1965), and Continental Oil Co. v. Hinton, 253 Miss. 233, 175...
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Donald v. Amoco Production Co., 97-CA-01178-SCT.
...liability for ultrahazardous activity has only been found by this Court in cases involving explosives. See Teledyne Exploration Co. v. Dickerson, 253 So.2d 817, 818 (Miss.1971); Central Exploration Co. v. Gray, 219 Miss. 757, 70 So.2d 33, 36 ¶ 31. As an issue of first impression, Donald ass......
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Wall v. Swilley
...493 So.2d 964, 969 (Miss.1986); Thomas v. Global Boat Builders and Repairmen, Inc., 482 So.2d at 1115; Teledyne Exploration Company v. Dickerson, 253 So.2d 817, 819 (Miss.1971); Bynum v. Mandrel Industries, Inc., 241 So.2d 629, 634-36 (Miss.1970), and in the courts of other states as well. ......
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Bolivar v. R & H Oil and Gas Co., Inc.
...to adjoining property by one who stores or explodes dynamite or other dangerous explosives on his land. See Teledyne Exploration Co. v. Dickerson, 253 So.2d 817 (Miss.1971); Central Exploration Co., Inc. v. Gray, 219 Miss. 757, 70 So.2d 33 (1954). But its adoption of that rule has not been ......
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Sprankle v. Bower Ammonia & Chemical Co.
...recognized a cause of action under this strict liability theory for certain abnormally dangerous activities. See Teledyne Exploration Co. v. Dickerson, 253 So.2d 817 (Miss.1971); Central Exploration Co. v. Gray, 219 Miss. 757, 70 So.2d 33 (1954). The Mississippi Supreme Court in Gray explic......