Bifalgorithm post · Property · acres, as a result of the blowout.
Damages
Damages (Property · acres, as a result of the blowout.) — "On the findings of the jury the trial court rendered judgment for petitioners for $154,518.19, which…
Ideas in this flowchart
- The review is confined to whether the law of capture absolves respondents of liability for the negligent waste or destruction of petitioners’ gas and distillate.
- The trial court rendered judgment for petitioners in the amount of $154,518.19.
- The judgment included $148,548.19 for the gas and distillate and $5,970 for damage to the land and cattle.
- The Court of Civil Appeals reversed the judgment and remanded the cause.
- The reversal rested on two grounds.
- Under the law of capture, petitioners allegedly lost all property rights in gas or distillate that migrated from beneath their lands and was lost through respondents’ blowout well.
- The Court of Civil Appeals also held that the wrong measure of damages had been submitted.
- The appellate court lacked authority to review the measure of damages because no assignment challenging it was presented there.
- Although the objection was raised in the trial court, it was not brought forward to the Court of Civil Appeals.
- The measure-of-damages question is therefore not before the court, which expresses no opinion on its correctness.
- The court’s subsequent conclusions address only whether the law of capture eliminates liability for waste or destruction occurring after the minerals were drained from beneath petitioners’ lands.
