Court Opinion

ID: 9854373
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:06:42.063152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:02.752539
License: Public Domain

HALLEY, C.J.
(dissenting). The defendant, as the owner and operator of the oil and gas lease, had the right to use ordinary methods for producing oil from the property. No effort was made to show that methods used were not reasonable and proper. This lease had been producing for more than twelve years at the time of plaintiff’s alleged injury. She had been on the premises about a month.
The evidence here wholly fails to show a trap or pitfall and defendant was under no duty to warn of hidden perils. Dunn v. Bomberger, 213 N.C. 172, 195 S. E. 364; 65 C.J.S. Negligence, §38. The existence and maintenance of a pipe line to drain off salt water is normal procedure in the production of oil and gas and warnings of its existence do not have to be given to a licensee.
The exact type of lease that her husband had on the land is not clearly revealed, but it was undoubtedly an oral lease for the surface and was subject to the rights of the defendant under its oil and gas lease.
The plaintiff was nothing more than a licensee in so far as defendant is concerned and she took the premises as she found them when she entered thereon. 65 C.J.S. Negligence, §35.
In the case of Platt v. Bender (La. App.) 178 So. 678, it was held that oil and gas lessees were not liable for the death of a part owner of surface rights sustained in an explosion occurring while such owner was watching the *570operation of a potential oil well. Where the part owner of the surface was present as a licensee on the leased premises, such owner took the premises as he found them and the lessees owed him no duty of care other than not to wantonly or intentionally injure him. There was no allegation or proof of wanton or intentional wrong in the case here. The defendant would not be liable to the surface owner under the facts in this case and by the same token it is not liable to the wife of the surface lessee. The demurrer to the evidence should have been sustained. I dissent.