Cost to Cure Improper Measure of Surface Damage

摘要

The court in Primrose Operating Co. v. Senn, 161 S.W.3d 258 (Tex. App.-Eastland 2005, pet. filed), reversed the trial court's award, based on a jury verdict, of more than 3 million dollars in favor of the plaintiff ranch owners against the operator of oil and gas wells on the ranch for surface contamination damage, interest, and punitive damages. The Senns bought only the surface of the 23,013-acre Covered "S" Ranch in 1997 for 3,164,000 dollars. There had been oil and gas production on the ranch since 1939, and there were some 500-600 producing wells at the time of the purchase, of which Primrose operated approximately 200. The Senns promptly began systematically searching for leaks and spills and, not surprisingly in a mature oil field, found some. Their expert testified that the soil affected by the spills at Primrose's well sites covered a total of only about 10 acres but were spread out across the area. They needed to be remediated, he went on, by removing the contaminated dirt and replacing it with clean soil, the cost of which would be 2,110,000 dollars. A real estate appraiser testified for the Senns that the ranch's value was diminished by the "cost to cure" of 2,110,000 dollars, plus another 20 percent of the cost to cure for the negative stigma attached to the contamination on the basis that the cost might be more than expected. The jury assessed both the cost to clean up the contamination and the diminution in the ranch's value at 2,110,000 dollars, and the trial court awarded actual damages in that amount.