Peevyhouse v. Garland Coal & Mining Co.

Peevyhouse v. Garland Coal & Mining Co., 382 P.2d 109 (Okl.1962), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

The Peevyhouses entered a contract with the Garland Coal & Mining Co. (Garland), for the purpose of strip-mining coal from the Peevyhouses' land. In return, Garland gave the Peevyhouses a royalty fee. Part of the contract included a provision where Garland promised to restore the Peevyhouse's land at the end of the strip-mining activities.

Because of recurrent flooding, Garland refused to fix the land and breached its contract with the Peevyhouses. The Peevyhouses sued the Garland Coal & Mining, seeking $25,000 to restore the land to its original condition. An expert witness at trial put the costs as high as $29,000. The jury returned a verdict for the Peevyhouses for $5,000.

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma found that, while the coal company breached its contract with the Peevyhouses, Garland did not have to fix the property nor pay for the work necessary to restore the land, but instead could just pay the Peevyhouses for the difference in land value. The land, while destroyed, had only lost $300 in value. The Court found that to pay the Peevyhouses to restore their land would be an economic waste, since the $25,000 in labor would result only in a $300 improvement of the land.

According to Professor John Morgan of Quinnipiac University School of Law, members of the Oklahoma Supreme Court who decided this may have been corrupt.Fact|date=December 2007 At least one member of the court was impeached, others resigned to avoid such a result.