Neighborly Conduct Versus Property in Minerals

Abstract

In Higgins Oil & Fuel Company v. Guaranty Oil Company, Ltd. (1919, La.) 82 So. 206, the defendant's duty to be neighborly was upheld and his privileges in using his land to dig for oil were correspondingly narrowed. The defendant had sunk an oil well on his land which caused air to get into the plaintiff's pump in a well on the latter's land, resulting in a great decrease in the productivity of the plaintiff's well. Although the defendant's well was a non-producer and could be closed without trouble or expense by simply putting back a plug, the defendant refused to close it. The court discusses both civil and common-law authorities and decides that the plaintiff is entitled to relief.