Court Opinion

ID: 9445256
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:23:55.294922+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:11.174187
License: Public Domain

RIVES, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I think that the judgment should be affirmed. Gulf exercised a large measure of control over the drilling of its well. William C. Alford was its “Area Drilling Superintendent” and testified: “I had charge of the drilling.” He was at the well until between 7:30 and 8:30 on the night before Wright’s death, and when he left he did not consider the situation as to gas dangerous.1 He had had forty-one years of experience in this line of work with this same company. It was he who gave the order to use the sulphur water as drilling fluid.2 He made no *59effort to find whether that sulphur water was dangerous..3
On the day before Wright’s death, K. W. Grebe, Gulf’s “Petroleum Engineer”, collected several one gallon test samples of the water for chemical analysis. Even then, however, he did not think that the gas was dangerous,4 and did not warn the drilling crew.
R. A. Spears, Gulf’s “Drilling Foreman”, was at this well “for a period of four or five hours, I’d say” on the day preceding Wright’s death. Though he had been in that same work with Gulf for thirty years, he recognized no danger.5
Ratliff Lepley was another “Drilling Foreman” for Gulf who stayed at this well constantly. He had been in Gulf’s employ for 28 years. He smelled the odor but never gave a thought to any danger.®
N. W. Eaton, “Drilling Superintendent” for Zephyr, was at the location between 8:00 and 10:00 o’clock on the night before Wright’s death. He did not think the gas was then of sufficient concentration to be dangerous.6
7 He had had experience in drilling oil wells since 1933. Zephyr relied on Gulf for any chemical tests of the gas.8
*60W. H. Fort, “Tool Pusher” for Zephyr and a man with eighteen or twenty years' experience in oil field work, had not recognized the danger.9 He had heard of tests for poisonous gas.10
That a chemical analysis would have revealed whether the hydrogen sulphide was of sufficient concentration to be deadly was also proved by the testimony of K. W. Grebe, Gulf’s “Petroleum Engineer”, who had collected the samples of water on the day preceding Wright’s death.11
Under this factual situation, it seems to me that the controlling Texas law is well stated in Robert E. McKee, General Contractor, Inc., v. Patterson, 153 Tex. £17,271 S.W.2d 391, 395:
“In all such cases, knowledge of the existence of the condition and appreciation of the danger therein by the parties are important factors in determining liability, but the rule for determining whether the parties should have known of the condition and appreciated its danger is not always the same as to each. The owner is charged with knowledge of any dangerous condition that a reasonable inspection would have revealed because his duty to keep his premises in a reasonably safe condition for use by his invitees includes a duty to inspect. Smith v. Henger, supra [148 Tex. 456, 226 S.W.2d 425, 20 A.L.R.2d 853]; R. E. Cox Dry Goods Co. v. Kellog, Tex.Civ, App., 145 S.W.2d 675, writ refused. There is no such obligation on the invitee. Peck v. Peck, 99 Tex. 10, 87 S.W. 248; Triangle Motors of Dallas v. Richmond, [152 Tex. 354] 258 S. W.2d 60, 63. While he may not close his eyes to obvious dangers, he has a right to assume that the premises are safe for his use. Blanks v. Southland Hotel, Inc., 149 Tex. 139, *61229 S.W.2d 357, 360; Triangle Motors of Dallas v. Richmond, supra; Restatement of Torts, Vol. 2, Secs. 343a and 343d.
“In order to fix liability on the owner it must first be established that he knew or should have known of the existence of the condition and that he should have appreciated its dangers. Once this is established either as a matter of law or by a fact finding, the inquiry then turns to what was known and appreciated, or should have been known and appreciated, by the invitee. In some cases, the existence of the condition may be so open and obvious and the dangers inherent in it so apparent that we may say as a matter of law that the invitee should have known of and appreciated them. Houston National Bank v. Adair, 146 Tex. 387, 207 S. W.2d 374; Marshall v. San Jacinto Bldg., Tex.Civ.App., 67 S.W.2d 372, writ refused; A. C. Burton Co. v. Stasny, Tex.Civ.App., 223 S.W.2d 310, writ refused; United Gas Corp. v. Crawford, 141 Tex. 332, 172 S.W. 2d 297. In others, whether the condition was so open and obvious and the dangers in it so apparent that the invitee should have known of them may be fact questions. Triangle Motors of Dallas v. Richmond, [152 Tex. 354] 258 S.W.2d 60; Hall v. Medical Bldg, of Houston, 151 Tex. 425, 251 S.W.2d 497; Blanks v. Southland Hotel, 149 Tex. 139, 229 S.W.2d 357.”
Mr. Grebe’s testimony heretofore quoted (footnote 11, supra) would indicate that hydrogen sulphide was the poisonous gas that caused Wright’s death. All of the circumstances point to the same conclusion. While appellee’s brief contains some ambiguous statements (footnote 4, majority opinion), I can find no suggestion in the record of the presence of any poisonous gas other than hydrogen sulphide. Certainly it was present, and just as certainly in sufficient concentration it is deadly. It was stipulated that Wright’» tour of duty started at 8:00 A. M. on May 9, 1953. Within thirty minutes, by 8:3(> A. M., he was dead “as a result of asphyxiation.” Now to call on Wright’s surviving and dependent mother, as a part of her “affirmative case” for further “proof identifying to some reasonable degree the nature of the toxic gas” is to require the impossible, for, of course, the gas has long since dissipated into thin air. Gulf and Zephyr could have been in position to gather that proof, but Wright’s mother never had any means of doing so. In any event, the conclusion is inescapable on the present record that hydrogen sulphide was in all probability the deadly gas.
Wright was a young man, only 22 years of age. His youth and inexperience must have been observable by Gulf’s men on the job, and they must have known that like most other young men in these days, the early part of his manhood had been spent in military service, in his case in the Navy. Yet there is no evidence of a single word of warning to Wright of the deadly nature of this treacherous gas. Simpson, a more experienced employee, was rendered unconscious along with Wright, but revived.
Wright was Gulf’s invitee, serving to further Gulf’s business. Gulf owed him the duty to make and keep its premises reasonably safe for his use. When, as the work progressed, Gulf decided to drill an artesian water well rather than an oil well, and its drilling superintendent gave the order, in accordance with Gulf’s reserved rights under the contract (footnote 3, majority opinion), to use the sulphur water as drilling fluid, Gulf owed a duty of reasonable diligence to see that that drilling fluid was reasonably safe. It knew that pumping drilling mud into the hole would have prevented further escape of the water and gas.12 Whether *62the decision of Gulf’s drilling superintendent to follow the more dangerous course, made without any effort to find whether the hydrogen sulphide was present in dangerous and deadly concentration, was a negligent decision seems to me to be a question for the jury. Gulf owed to its obviously inexperienced invitee the duty to warn him of the danger of this deadly gas. It was for the jury to say whether that duty had been breached.
A thorough reading and study of the record convinces me that the issues were well understood by skillful trial counsel and were made entirely clear to the jury by the able and experienced trial judge. I think that the evidence was ample to sustain the jury’s verdict. Indeed, it seems to me that no other just verdict could have been rendered.
. My brother, with commendable industry and thoroughness, has collected, in the appendix to the majority opinion, a lengthy bibliography on the nature, the deadliness, and the treachery of hydrogen sulphide gas. William Wright had neither the capacity nor the leisure required for such an investigation. Indeed, the record discloses that my brothers now know much more about hydrogen sulphide gas, or rather about its literature, than did the oil field workers whose experience was measured by decades. With all deference to my brothers, and with sincere admiration for their learning, industry, and thoroughness, all of this simply proves to me the wisdom of leaving such questions of fact to be determined by twelve jurymen who can more nearly put themselves in the positions of the parties and thereby reach a commonsense, practical, and just conclusion. To my mind, the Seventh Amendment protects the sanctity of their verdict, and the judgment entered thereon should be affirmed.
I, therefore, respectfully dissent.

. “Q. And at the time when you left there was there anything there that caused you to believe that there was gas or possibilities of gas in any concentrations which might be dangerous to people that might be around the rig? A. Not at that time, no, sir.
“Q. I see. Well, did you ever believe or have anyone tell you that before Mr. Wright became involved in his accident? A. No, sir.”

. “Q. Mr. Alford, didn’t you give the order yourself to go ahead and drill using the sulphur water for the drilling fluid in that well? A. To go ahead using the water that was flowing and go ahead drilling.
“Q. That was your order? A. That’s right.”

. “Q. Now, is it your statement that you didn’t ask that any chemical analysis be made to determine what gas was there and whether it was dangerous to those people or not? A. No, sir, I did not.”

. “Q. And when you took the samples did you consider that there was gas there, that you were in danger as you were taking the samples? A. In my own mind I felt that there was some gas present but I was not aware of the fact that it was dangerous.”

. “Q. Well, was there anything about the odor, the concentration that you saw there, that caused you to believe that there was any danger about being around it? A. No, sir. Previously before I had situations, you see water that smelled like that to come from the wells.”

. “Q. What, if anything, could you tell about the water, could you smell anything? A. Yes, sir. I could smell, it had an odor.
“Q. Now, how close did you get around the places where the water was being run or stored? A. I was all around it, right up at it.
“Q. While you were around it and up at it did it appear to you that the thing that was causing the odor, whatever was in the water, was of sufficient concentration to be dangerous to yon or anybody else? A. No, sir. In fact, I never even give it a thought. We never thought about it.
“Q. In your drilling experience during the years was that the first time that you had even encountered water in an oil well? A. Oh, no, sir. We do that every once in a while.
“Q. Is it frequent or infrequent in the drilling of wildcat wells that you run into water denominated sulphur water? A. Well, you run into that every once in a while, yes, sir.
“Q. Ordinarily, running into sulphur water, do you ever connect that with having gas that might asphyxiate those that get it in sufficient quantity? A. No, sir. Never have.”

. “Q. Well, when yon left there did you consider that there was gas in concentration sufficient to make it dangerous for your crew men to be there working on the floor? A. No, sir.
“Q. Or about the premises? A. No. I wouldn’t think so, no.”

. “Q. Yes. Whenever you ran into anything in the way of oil or gas they would run their own test on what you had found to determine what it was, wouldn’t they? A. I don’t believe I quite get you on that.
“Q. Well, let me point it out to you. You entered into a contract with them, did you not, sir, about how this well was to be drilled? A. That’s right.
“Q. And in that contract didn’t it state that the contractor agreed to stop drilling and to notify Gulf whenever any oil or gas bearing formations were found so as to give Gulf opportunity in sufficient time to examine said formation for the purpose of determining what further operations, if any, should be conducted? A. Well, I don’t know. I believe that the Gulf advised us about those things because they had capable men who were capable of identifying those formations which a drilling crew is not responsible for doing.
“Q. Well— A. Does that answer your question?
*60“Q. Yes. That’s what I am driving at. They would rely on their own tests? A. I understood you to say that 'they done the testing. We do the testing as far as the equipment is concerned and the labor.
“Q. Oh, yes, I see what you mean. But after you got out of the well the samples that they wanted you didn’t conduct any test to determine the chemical content of those samples? A. Oh, no, sir.
“Q. You turn them over to Gulf and they rely on their own information about that? A. That’s right, yes, sir.
“Q. Now then, you didn’t have any facilities there for any chemical analysis of any sort, did you? A. No.
“Q. Just nothing but doing the mechanical work and labor to drill that hole? A. That’s right.”

. “Q. Now, did you see anything or smell anything from that water flow into the reserve pit as to cause you to believe that it would be dangerous for your workmen to be about where this water was flowing? A. Well, there just nobody ever had any indication of being gas or anything in it.
“Q. Well, did you believe it was dan-eerous for your workmen to be working there? A. I don’t think so.
*****
“Q. Well, was the gas there in sufB-eient quantities when you last was there in your opinion to be dangerous to your workmen? A. Well, I didn’t think so.”

. “Q. Well, you had heard that people do have men out there testing the gas to see whether it is poison gas or not as it flows in the reserve pits? A. Yes.”

. “Q. Now then, what kind of gas do you think it was out there that caused William Wright’s death? What is the nature of it, chemical nature of it? A. Well, as X said, I did not run or execute any chemical analysis on this water, but from the smell of it I assumed that it was hydrogen sulphide, though I could not be positive, of course.
“Q. That can be very poisonous, of course, can it not? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And you can determine the extent to which it is poisonous by such chemical analysis, can you not, Mr. Grebe? A. Yes, sir, but I believe that there would be lots of other factors that would determine its deadliness, so to speak, its concentration.
“Q. I know. But by chemical analysis you can determine whether it is that kind of gas that would kill people no matter what that concentration might be, you can find out what that chemical content would be, can’t you? A. Yes, sir. X would say so.”

. As testified by E. A. Spears, Gulf’s drilling foreman,
“Q. Of course, had the drilling mud been prepared and pumped into the hole it would have been possible to kill the well by having mud of a sufficient weight to overcome the gas pressure and keep both the water and the gas in the hole, couldn’t they? A. Yes, sir.
*62“Q. And that way the gas could not have come to the surface and this tragedy could have been avoided, isn’t that true, sir? A. That’s right.”