The Federal Reporter with Key-Number Annotations, Volume 256: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and District Courts of the United States, May-July, 1919. Page: 432
xiv, 992 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this legislative document.
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256 FEDERAL REPORTER
statements of the same witnesses, to the effect that, prior to that time,
a pipe had been twisted off in the well and had been sidetracked; and
in connection with the facts with reference to which they testified as to
developments, when an effort was made to resume work.
When Mr. White was at the well on the 20th of December, to meas-
ure and receive the well, it was not practicable for the measurements
to be made. The drill stem had been pulled up, and it would have been
necessary to raise steam and do a number of hours of work before it
could have been again forced to the bottom of the well. The only
practicable way to measure the well was by measuring the drill stem.
It was not practicable to measure it with a cord and weight. The meth-
od by which, under the rotary process, a well is drilled, requires the
presence in the well of mud, introduced from the top through the drill
stem, and this mud is not totally removed until the well is finished and
washed out: An ordinary plumb bob could not have penetrated this
mud to the bottom, nor could a suspended joint of pipe. On account
of the delay which would have been occasioned in getting the drill
stem to the bottom, and then taking it out for measurement, it was
agreed that the measuring of the well should be postponed until the
1st of January. When an effort was made about that date to pre-
pare the well for measurement, it was found that the piece of pipe
which had been sidetracked had fallen into the well. Whether this
was the result of the withdrawal of the drill stem, or came from some
other cause, does not appear; but it was apparent that, on the 18th
of December, the time plaintiff and his employ fixed as a date upon
which the well was down to 2,000 feet, with a good, clean hole, the con-
ditions were either that the sidetracked pipe had already fallen back
into the hole, or that the hole could be obstructed by the falling back
into it of the sidetracked pipe.
[2] The District Judge was warranted in the conclusion that the
contract had not been carried out, when it was made to appear that a
piece of piping had been left in such condition that either the with-
drawal of the drill stem, or the mere lapse of a short period of time,
would result in the hole's being obstructed by the pipe. By a good
clean hole is not to be understood one which is free from mud, but one
which is free from those things, the presence of which would render
the hole incapable of the uses for which it was designed. The witness
stated that on the 18th of December the hole was a good clean one.
He could have known nothing to support such a conclusion, other
than that, before the drill stem was withdrawn, it rotated without diffi-
culty, and that it was withdrawn without difficulty. The District Court
was not without warrant in rejecting these conclusions of the witness-
es, and reaching a conclusion of his own that at that time, when the
well was tendered for measurement, the conditions were such that the
well did not meet the requirements of the contract.
[3] Plaintiff in error contends that the contract makes no provision
for the measurement of the well. It is, perhaps, an implied obligation
of almost every contract that the person who undertakes to do some-
thing shall, upon the completion of his work, or his claim that the
work is completed, make a reasonable showing of the truth of that
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The Federal Reporter with Key-Number Annotations, Volume 256: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and District Courts of the United States, May-July, 1919., legislative document, 1919; Saint Paul, Minnesota. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38827/m1/446/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.