Wasatch Oil Refining Co. v. Wade

• Decision Date: 30 December 1936
• Docket Number: 5760
• Citation: 92 Utah 50,63 P.2d 1070
• Court: Utah Supreme Court
• Parties: WASATCH OIL REFINING CO. v. WADE, Judge, et al

63 P.2d 1070

92 Utah 50

WASATCH OIL REFINING CO. v. WADE, Judge, et al

No. 5760

Supreme Court of Utah

December 30, 1936

Rehearing Denied July 26, 1937.

Original proceeding in mandamus and prohibition by the Wasatch Oil Refining Company against the Honorable Lester A. Wade, Judge of the District Court of Davis County, and others, wherein defendants filed a demurrer.

ALTERNATIVE WRITS OF MANDAMUS AND PROHIBITION QUASHED, AND PRAYER IN PETITION FOR ISSUANCE OF PERMANENT WRITS OF MANDAMUS AND PROHIBITION DENIED.

Henry D. Moyle, M. E. Wilson, and Robert C. Wilson, all of Salt Lake City, for plaintiff.

Willard Hanson, E. R. Christensen, A. J. Mays, and D. N. Straup, all of Salt Lake City, for defendants.

FOLLAND Justice. ELIAS HANSEN, C. J., and EPHRAIM HANSON and MOFFAT, JJ., concur. WOLFE, J., concurs in the results.

OPINION

FOLLAND, Justice.

This is an original proceeding for the purpose of obtaining writ of mandamus to compel the Judge of the District Court of Davis County to make and file findings of fact, conclusions of law, and decree in a suit now pending wherein Jos. C. Wood and the others named herein as defendants, other than the District Judge, were plaintiffs, and the plaintiff herein, Wasatch Oil Refining Company, was the defendant, and in addition thereto to obtain a writ of prohibition against the District Judge to prevent him from entering upon the trial of said cause for the purpose of determining the question of damages, if any, sustained by the separate and individual plaintiffs in said action. The matter is submitted on petition of plaintiff and the demurrer and answer of defendants.

The petition and answer are lengthy, and it is unnecessary to set them out in full. The undisputed facts shown are that the Wasatch Oil Refining Company is a Utah corporation which owns, and since December, 1931, has operated, an oil refining plant for the purpose of distilling and producing gasoline from crude oil at Woods Cross in Davis County. The nineteen defendants, other than the District Judge, are owners of sixteen separate tracts of land located in the vicinity of and within 150 to 1,500 feet distant from the oil refining plant. These persons, in August of 1933, commenced suit in the District Court of Davis County to obtain an injunction against the operation and maintenance of the refining plant on grounds of nuisance. There were allegations of loud and continual noises; pollution of the air by injurious smoke, fumes, gases, and odors; the existence of peril and danger by the maintenance of inflammable and explosive substances thereof, making living on plaintiffs' premises undesirable, unsafe, uncomfortable, and dangerous. The cause was tried to the court during 27 court days. The trial judge, after submission and argument, entered oral and written opinions to the effect that the community wherein the plant was located was not residential in character, that he would not wholly enjoin the operation of the plant, and requested counsel to prepare findings of fact, conclusions of law, and decree. Counsel for the refining company prepared proposed findings, conclusions, and decree as did also counsel for plaintiffs in that cause, and in addition thereto filed objections to the proposed findings of the refining company, all of which were noticed for hearing and determination on the 9th of September, 1935. Prior to said date plaintiffs below gave notice to the defendant that they would, on said date, apply to the court for leave to reopen the cause and to file amendments to the complaint for the purpose of having the court determine the amount of damages plaintiffs had suffered by reason of the erection, maintenance and operation of the refining plant, and to postpone determination of the right of plaintiffs to injunctive relief until the issue of damages be determined. They served on the attorneys for the refining company a copy of the proposed amendment to the complaint, including amendment to the prayer that "in the event that the court will not grant an injunction then plaintiffs pray that they be awarded damages," and specified the amount claimed by each of the several defendants amounting in all to $ 99,250. The refining company objected to the reopening of the case and the filing of the proposed amendments to the pleadings and moved the court to then and there make its findings, conclusions, and decree denying plaintiffs any equitable relief. After argument the court granted the motion to reopen the case and permitted the proposed amendments to be made and filed and overruled defendant's objections thereto, and also denied the motion of the refining company to then and there make findings, conclusions, and decree. Counsel for plaintiffs stated to the court it was not their intention to introduce further evidence on the question of whether they should have an injunction enjoining the operation and maintenance of the refining plant. Thereupon defendant filed a demurrer to the amended complaint on the ground, among others, that as to the legal relief asked for the complaint contains causes of action in favor of individual plaintiffs, and that each individual plaintiff was improperly joined with the other plaintiffs, that the causes of action for damages were individual rather than joint, and were improperly and unlawfully joined in the complaint; and also moved that a decree be entered as to the equitable issues theretofore tried, or that the complaint be dismissed without prejudice to the rights of the plaintiffs and to each of them to bring separate actions at law for such wrongs as they complained of, such defendant contending that the court had no power to allow amendments to the complaint transforming the equitable suit for injunction into a legal action for damages. The demurrer was overruled and the motion denied, and the court announced he would fix a day for the further trial of the cause as it might relate to the matter of damages. Defendant then filed a supplemental answer pleading: (1) Want of jurisdiction in the trial court to hear and determine the issue of damages, and that the trial court had lost jurisdiction of the cause for all purposes except that of making, signing, and entering findings of fact, conclusions of law and decree; (2) misjoinder of parties plaintiff as to damages, that there was an unlawful joinder of parties plaintiff, and that many causes of action had been improperly united and joined; (3) denial that plaintiffs or any of them had suffered damages by reason of any conduct of defendant.

The petition of the refining company, in addition to reciting in greater detail the facts above summarized, alleged in substance that the suit now pending in the District Court of Davis County is, in legal effect, so far as the question of damages is concerned, sixteen different causes of action, and that the refining company is entitled to a separate jury trial as to each cause of action, and that it is unlawful and improper to try said cause of action as one in equity after the court had determined the community wherein the refining plant was located was not residential in character, and had denied all equitable relief; that unless restrained and prohibited by this court the trial court would proceed in said cause to hear and determine "the new issues as to damages now pretended to be raised," and determine the right of each plaintiff to recover what damages he may individually have sustained; that it has no plain, speedy, or adequate remedy in the premises, and prays this court to issue its writ of mandate directing the presiding judge of the District Court of Davis County to make, sign, and file findings, conclusions, and decree in said cause without in any manner undertaking to determine damages to each individual plaintiff, and that this court also issue its writ of prohibition prohibiting the trial court from in any manner proceeding to determine the question of damages or the doing of any matter or thing in said cause other than to make, sign, and file its findings, conclusions, and decree.

On the filing of the petition, alternative writs of mandamus and prohibition were issued by this court wherein the trial court was commanded and prohibited as prayed, and to show cause why the writs should not be made permanent. Defendants herein filed a demurrer and answer. The demurrer is on the following grounds: That sufficient facts are not alleged to show want or excess of jurisdiction in the District Court with respect to any of the matters or proceedings alleged or sought to be prohibited; that plaintiff has an adequate and speedy remedy in the course of law on appeal; that to properly pass on and determine the matters and things alleged requires a review of the proceedings had in the District Court and a certification of the record to this court; that the facts are not sufficient to entitle plaintiff to a writ of mandate or to show that the court abused its discretion in deferring the making of findings, conclusions, and decree until the whole cause was heard and determined, or that it was the plain duty of the court to make findings, conclusions, and decree with respect to the part of the proceedings heard in the cause, or that there was an abuse of discretion in reopening the case to permit additional evidence with respect to the question of damages, nor were sufficient facts alleged to show that when a court of equity has acquired and assumed jurisdiction of the cause, such court has not jurisdiction of the cause for all purposes including the granting of equitable or legal relief, or both.

A lengthy answer also was filed admitting and denying allegations of the petition and setting out more fully quotations from the pleadings and proceedings in the trial court and from the...