Yellow Pine Oil Co. v. Noble

• Decision Date: 20 November 1907
• Citation: 105 S.W. 318
• Court: Texas Supreme Court
• Parties: YELLOW PINE OIL CO. v. NOBLE.

105 S.W. 318

YELLOW PINE OIL CO. v. NOBLE.

Supreme Court of Texas.

November 20, 1907.

Error from Court of Civil Appeals of First Supreme Judicial District.

Action by Anna Noble against the Yellow Pine Oil Company. From a judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals affirming a judgment of the district court for plaintiff (101 S. W. 276), defendant brings error. Reversed and remanded.

Greer, Minor & Miller, for plaintiff in error. Jas. A. Harrison, for defendant in error.

BROWN, J.

For herself, her minor children, and the mother of the deceased, Anna Noble instituted this suit in the district court of Jefferson county to recover damages from the Yellow Pine Oil Company for the death of her husband, Wash L. Noble, who, she alleged, lost his life while in the employ of the Yellow Pine Oil Company at Beaumont in the capacity of gauger of oil sold by the said oil company and which was to be delivered through a pipe line into tanks. It was alleged that, in the discharge of his duty as gauger, it was necessary for Noble to go upon the oil tanks, and, while upon one of the tanks discharging the duty of his employment, he lost his life from the effects of gas which escaped from the said tank through the negligence of the Yellow Pine Oil Company in failing to furnish to Noble a safe place to perform the work for which he was engaged. The evidence shows that the tanks of the oil company were not properly constructed, and that it was very dangerous to go upon them at all. Noble was found in a dying condition on top of one of the tanks during the first night of his employment. He died from the effects of the gas which escaped from the tank. The only evidence that we find in the record as to the scope of Noble's employment is in the following statement of F. E. Carroll, manager for the Yellow Pine Oil Company, who testified that his company was delivering oil through a pipe line into tanks for the Sabine Oil & Marketing Company, which had to be guaged after its delivery, and his company needed a man to see to the gauging of the oil. Mr. Noble was recommended and introduced to the witness by one Mr. Bartlett. From the testimony of Carroll we copy as follows: "Having made a contract with the Sabine Oil & Marketing Company, I was looking for some one to look after our interests out there, and Mr. Bartlett told me I could get Mr. Noble to work for us he thought. Mr. Bartlett introduced Noble to me. I had spoken to him prior to meeting Mr. Noble about getting some one to look after our interests, and he told me about Mr. Noble. Mr. Bartlett did not make any remarks about Mr. Noble other than that he would make a good man, and one that I could rely upon. Mr. Noble was employed by me to see that we got the proper gauge in the tanks, and I instructed him that it was for this purpose I was employing him. I cautioned him about the danger from the gas. I was at the well that we were going to flow the oil from at the time I spoke to him about the danger from the gas. Necessarily the gas pressure would have to be very strong for the well to flow the oil down to those tanks — it was quite a distance, probably half a mile or more — and, of course, it required very great natural pressure for the well to flow the oil down to the tanks, as I have stated before, and it was at that time, while I was discussing this fact with him, that I cautioned him about the gas. I told him the gas would come through the pipe line into the tank and was very dangerous. He said he understood that, and that it required a great deal of gas pressure to flow the oil into the tank. I warned Mr. Noble very pointedly about the gas coming from the tank, and about being careful. I told him that I had been gassed myself on several occasions, that I had been knocked out twice, and on several occasions had my eyes badly gassed, and that it had been done by this well, and I told him it was...