Gibson Collins v. Texas Company

JOHN R. BROWN, Circuit Judge.

Involved here is the question of liability for damage to submerged oyster beds in the marshlands of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana occasioned by dragline dredging operations of an oil company undertaking to exploit its mineral leases. The District Court at the end of the plaintiff’s case, instructed a verdict on the dual alternative ground of insufficient evidence of negligence and proof of actual damage.

We cannot rest affirmance on the ruling on damages. For we are of the view that under the circumstances of this case and the Louisiana doctrine of damages set forth…