Canadian Oil & Gas Co. v. Webb
Canadian Oil & Gas Co. v. Webb
Opinion of the Court
Wfebb sued R. S. Allen,.J. A. Pisher, L. 0. Thompson, I-I. E. Hume, and the Canadian Oil & Gas Company. The suit was filed originally December 20, 1915. By a- second amended original petition, filed on the 27th day of February, 1917, the Canadian *136 Oil & Gas Company was brought into the suit for the first time. .The petition alleged that Webb was the owner of 2,257 feet of 4-ineh rotary pipe, of the value of $500; that on the 1st day of April, 1914, and shortly thereafter the defendants converted the pipe to their own use, and appellee sued for the value of the pipe, the sum of $500. He also alleged that he did not know of the conversion of this pipe until a short time prior to the filing of this suit, and that the defendants fraudulently conspired together to withhold from plaintiff such knowledge. The defendants each filed an answer to the petition, pleading the bar of the two-year statute of limitations, and the Canadian Oil & Gas Company filed its original answer on the 27th day of February, 1917, in which it pleaded the two-year statute of limitations, and specially alleged that Allen and Webb were copartners in the ownership of the pipe, and ■that it had gotten possession of the pipe from Allen under a certain contract, and that it had complied in all things with the contract made with Allen, and that Allen acted for Webb in making the agreement. The -case was tried before the court without a jury, and judgment rendered against the oil company in the sum of $297. The court also rendered judgment in favor of the other defendants, R. S, Allen, J. A. Fisher, H. E. Hume, and L. O. Thompson, against Webb, finding for Allen on the waiver of judgment by Webb as against Allen filed in the lower court.'
The first assignment of error is to the effect that the conclusions of law of the trial court are erroneous because the pleadings of the oil company set up as a b^.r to the right of recovery the two-year statute of limitations, and findings of facts by the trial court show that this suit was not filed for more than two years prior to the accrual of his cause of action, and that Allen, appellee’s partner, had full knowledge of all the facts at all ■times subsequent to the defendants’ use and retention of the pipe. The findings of the court are as follows:
• “(I) The court finds that on or about the 1st day of April, 1913, the plaintiff Sidney Webb, and the defendant R. S. Allen together were the owners of 2,257 feet of 4-inch rotary pipe of the vaiue of 20 cents per foot, and that on or about said date the defendant R. S. Allen delivered the said pipe to the defendant the Canadian' Oil & Gas Company, to be used by said company in a well that it was drilling in Wichita county, Tex.; that said company agreed that if they found oil in its well in paying quantities and used said casing, then it would pay the reasonable value for the casing so used, but in the event it did not find oil in its well in paying quantities, it would pull said casing from said well, or as much thereof as it could, and leave same at the company’s well' on the ground.
“(2) That the Canadian Oil & Gas Company drilled and completed its well about May 1, 1913, and did not find oil in paying quantities. It pulled some of said casing, about 600 feet, from the said well after it had ascertained that said well would not produce oil in paying quan-, tlties, and left ¿bout 1,400 feet of casing in Swid well which was impossible to be pulled, and that as soon as they had pulled said casing, which was between the 1st and 10th of May, 1913, said Canadian Oil & Gas Company, by and through its agent, informed and told the defendant R. S. Allen of the fact that they were unable to pull about 1,400 feet of said casing, and that they pulled about 600 feet of the casing which they used, and told R. S. Allen that said casing was then on the ground at the well which they had abandoned about May 1, 1913. That the value of the casing left in said well, if it had been pulled on the ground, would have been $297.
“(3) I find that the plaintiff, Sidney Webb, did not authorize the said R. S. Allen to make said disposition of said casing to the said Canadian Oil & Gas Company, but that they were equal partners in said casing, and that the plaintiff, Sidney Webb, and R. S. Allen were the owners of a certain oil and gas lease lying next to the one where the defendant the Canadian Oil & Gas Company were drilling their well, and that the said R. S. Allen was desirous of having a deep test made where the Canadian Oil & Gas Company were drilling, and for that purpose the said R. S. Allen loaned the casing to the Canadian Oil & Gas Company.
“(4) I find that the plaintiff, Sidney Webb, did not know what had become of this casing until a year or 18 months prior to the filing of this suit, but' that Sidney Webb made no effort to find out from R. S. Alien,. his copart-ner, what R. S. Allen had done with this casing.
“(5) I further find that the plaintiff, Sidney Webb, tried for several months before the filing of this suit to force the Canadian Oil & Gas Company to pay for the casing they had left in the well, and that the Canadian Oil & Gas Company failed and refused to pay same, and that on the 16th day of December, 1915, the plaintiff, Sidney Webb, filed this suit, and that the plaintiff, Sidney Webb, filed his second amended petition against the defendant Canadian Oil & Gas Company on the 27th day of February, 1917.
“(6) I further find that the plaintiff, Sidney Webb, in open court waived any judgment that he had against the defendant R. S. Allen.
“Conclusions of Law.
“(1) I conclude as a matter of law that the statute of limitation does not run in favor of the Canadian Oil & Gas Company against the plaintiff, Sidney Webb, in this case, and that the defendant the Canadian Oil & Gas Company is liable to the plaintiff in the sum of $297, the value of the casing which it left in its well and could not return to the plaintiff.
“(2) I further conclude that the plaintiff is not entitled to recover against J. A. Fisher, H. E. Hume, and L. O. Thompson, in any sum whatever.
“(3) Upon the waiver of the plaintiff, Sidney Webb, in open court I conclude that the plaintiff, Sidney Webb, is not entitled to recover anything against the defendant R. S. Allen.”
The judgment will be reversed and rendered for appellant, and that Webb take nothing by reason of the suit. Reversed and rendered.
(&wkey;>For other oases see same topic and KEY-NUMBER. in all Key-Numbered Digests and indexes
Reference
- Full Case Name
- CANADIAN OIL & GAS CO. v. WEBB Et Al.
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published