Court Opinion

ID: 9832466
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 21:56:03.167522+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:47.150025
License: Public Domain

On Appellee’s Motion for Rehearing.
Appellee files a -motion for rehearing, consisting of 65 pages, most of which seems to deal with questions under a misconception of our holding on original hearing.
We did not hold on original hearing that article 1306, Civil Code (Vernon’s Ann. Civ. St. Supp. 1922), did not apply to cases where the owner of the land by contract agreed to give a pipe line company the right of way over his land, but simply held that, even under said statute, it was a question of fact whether the dirt from the ditch constructed over said land was properly restored and the ditch properly filled, and that as to that issue certain evidence excluded by the trial court was admissible. Certainly the statute does not contemplate that in filling the ditch the pipe line is required to put each part of the dirt removed from said ditch into the place occupied by it before it was removed. Such a construction would require the pipe line, company to do an impossible thing, and we must presume that the Legislature was only requiring a duty reasonably possible of performance. We do not decide the question as to the applicability of the statute, but simply say that if it does apply, the defendant below had the right to show that it reasonably exercised due diligence and care in the effort to comply with the statutory requirements, and that the ditch was so filled. We recognize the rulé as well established by many authorities, such as Mo. Pac. R. R. Co. v. Fagan, 72 Tex. 127, 9 S. W. 749, 2 L. R. A. 75, 13 Am. St. Rep. 776, and T. B. & H. Ry. Co. v. Warner, 88 Tex. 642, 32 S. W. 868, that a statutory requirement as to things to be done cannot be varied or superseded by showing that the precautions taken and the efforts made to avoid injury were, according to the best usage and custom of those employed in similar lines, in the exercise of due care. But if a statute requires certain safety precautions to be taken, then we think it is permissible to show that in the performance of the statutory requirements due care was exercised, and as to this we think the proof as to what was the general custom of others engaged in a similar business was admissible. We think it was permissible for the defendant to show what was the usual and customary way of back-filling the ditches, or “burying” the pipe line. Such evidence did not vary or contradict the statutory requirement. We think it was for the jury to say whether the method used by appellant to “back-fill” the ditch was a method reasonably calculated to properly restore the dirt to its former place, and that in considering and determining this question, the jury should have been permitted to hear the evidence offered by defendant. The motion for rehearing is overruled.
Appellant urges that we should reverse the judgment and here render judgment for defendant below, but such course would deprive plaintiff of the right of trial by a jury of the question as to whether defendant used care in its effort to comply with the statutory requirement, and as to whether the ditch as filled was properly filled. \
The motion for rehearing is overruled.