Gulf Oil Corporation v. Lemmons

Gulf Oil Corporation appeals from a judgment based on a jury’s verdict, awarding $533, interest and costs, to Clifford W. Lemmons as damages to growing crops owned by plaintiff, alleged to have been injured by the escape of oil from defendant’s pond used in defendant’s development for oil.

Plaintiff pleaded that the Arkansas river overflowed its banks in the spring of 1944; that the flood waters extended over defendant’s leasehold and washed deleterious substances (oil and base sediment from the pond and salt water from defendant’s lease) and deposited them upon plaintiff’s growing crops,…