JOHNSON OIL REF. CO. v. THOMAS

JOHNSON OIL REF. CO. v. THOMAS
1935 OK 1126
51 P.2d 813
174 Okla. 600
Case Number: 25723
Decided: 11/19/1935
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

JOHNSON OH, REFINING CO.
v.
THOMAS.

Syllabus

¶0 1. WATERS AND WATER COURSES--Statute Forbidding Deposit of Refuse From Oil Wells in Streams Held not Applicable to Oil Refineries.
Section 11580, O. S. 1931, forbidding deposit of inflammable products or waste and refuse from oil and gas wells in tanks, pools, or streams used for watering stock, and imposing other restrictions, is not applicable to oil refineries which are not operated in immediate conjunction with wells, any more than to other similar industrial establishments.
2. SAME--Instruction That Refinery's Deposit of Deleterious substances in Stream Was Negligence Per Se Held Reversible Error.
An instruction in an action wherein an adjacent landowner sues a refinery for damages resulting from said refinery's deposit of deleterious substances into a stream, that violation of section 11580, O. S. 1931, constitutes negligence per se, no oil or gas wells being involved in the action, is reversible error.

Appeal from Common Pleas Court, Tulsa County. Leslie Webb, Judge.

Action by J. S. Thomas against Johnson Oil Refining Company for damage to crops. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded.

West & Davidson, for plaintiff in error.
B. A. Hamilton, for defendant in error.

PHELPS, J.

¶1 This is an appeal by the defendant below, from a judgment for plaintiff, recovered because of the defendant's alleged deposit of deleterious substances into a running stream, which substances were carried on to the land of plaintiff by a heavy rain, damaging his crops.

¶2 The defendant appeals on the same ground as recited in the case of Johnson Oil Refining Company v. Carnes et al., 174 Okla. 599, 51 P.2d 811. The same objectionable instruction was given to the jury in this case as was given in that case.

¶3 Reference is made to that decision, and for the reasons therein set forth, the judgment herein is reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial.