Court Opinion

ID: 7810998
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-07 17:12:49.076826+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:30:28.301072
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON REHEARING. Hart, J. We adhere to our original opinion that there was an implied covenant on the part of the lessee to sink a protection well or wells on the land of the lessor, and that it can not escape liability for the breach of its-implied covenant to protect the lines of the leased premises on the ground that the damages for the breach are difficult of exact ascertainment. Because the nature of the inquiry makes it practically impossible to ascertain with certainty the exact amount of the lessor’s damage, is no reason why the lessor should not have an action for damages for breach of the implied covenant. It is true the law does not permit a witness to speculate or conjecture as to probable damages-, yet experienced persons who are acquainted with the gas-bearing conditions of the lands in the locality of the leased premises can give an opinion as to the amount of gas drawn off the premises and lost by the failure of the lessee to comply with its implied covenant. The rule is that, while the law will not permit witnesses to speculate or conjecture as to possible or probable damages, still the best evidence of which the subject will admit is reasonable, and there is often nothing better than the opinion of well-informed persons upon the subject under investigation. Chamberlayne on Modern Evidence, vol. 3, §§ 2331-32, and St. L., I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Brooksher, 86 Ark. 91. From the evidence already taken, it would seem that the sand-producing gas on the leased premises and the land adjacent thereto is of uniform character, and that, expert witnesses can with a reasonable amount of certainty tell the amount of gas that will be drawn from the leased premises by the wells dug near the boundary line by the lessee on the adjacent premises. When the amount of gas that will be drawn from the leased premises is ascertained, the amount of damages to be recovered can be readily fixed by the royalty that the lessor was to receive. The evidence in the record shows that the lessee never intended to sink protection wells, and it claims that, under the terms of the lease, it was not renuiml to do so. The lessee drilled three gas wells, one after the other, near the lessor’s boundary lines on adjacent nrom-ises. This shows that it never intended to drill a protection well or wells on the leased premises. The evidence also shows that these wells would draw gas from a quarter of a mile in all directions, and that the character of the gas-bearing sand was such that the gas would all be drawn off of the leased premises by these wells. Hence, under the evidence disclosed by the record, the measure of damages in the present case will be the amount of royalty that the lessors should receive from the quantity of gas which has been or may hereafter be proved to have been draivn from the leased premises. The question of what time would constitute due diligence or delay in drilling protection wells does not arise in the present case, because, as we have already explained, the record shows that the lessee never intended to sink such wells. It follows that the motion for rehearing will be denied.