## Facts

- C. H. Landers owned a small privately improved lake in Upshur County, Texas, which he had cleaned and stocked with fish.
- East Texas Salt Water Disposal Company operated a salt-water pipeline near Landers’s property and allegedly pumped large volumes of salt water through it.
- Around April 1, 1949, East Texas’s pipeline allegedly broke and released thousands of barrels of salt water that flowed over Landers’s land and into his lake, killing fish and damaging the property.
- Sun Oil Company operated a nearby oil well and a pipeline carrying oil and salt water along a branch that crossed Landers’s property and emptied into the lake.
- Around the same date, Sun’s pipeline allegedly broke and released oil and salt water into the branch and then into the lake, causing additional pollution and fish loss.
- Landers alleged a single injury—pollution of one lake causing fish death and related property damage—and did not attempt to quantify each defendant’s share of the damage.
- Landers sued both defendants seeking damages and injunctive relief and requested joint and several liability.

## Issues

1. Whether a plaintiff alleging a single, indivisible property injury caused by the independent negligent acts of multiple defendants must plead and prove each defendant’s exact portion of the harm.
2. Whether defendants whose separate acts combine to cause an indivisible injury may be held jointly and severally liable absent concerted action or a common design.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Texas reversed the court of civil appeals and the trial court’s dismissal of the damages claims and remanded for trial on the merits.
- The court held that when the tortious acts of two or more wrongdoers combine to produce an indivisible injury, and it is not possible to determine with reasonable certainty the damage caused by each, the wrongdoers are jointly and severally liable for the entire harm.
- The court rejected earlier Texas decisions to the extent they required apportionment or prevented recovery where allocation among independent tortfeasors was not reasonably possible.

## Legal Principles

- Independent tortfeasors may be jointly and severally liable when their separate negligent acts combine to cause a single, indivisible injury that cannot be apportioned with reasonable certainty.
- A plaintiff need not prove the precise percentage or amount of damage attributable to each defendant when the combined conduct produces one inseparable harm.
- Concert of action, conspiracy, or unity of design is not required for joint and several liability when the injury is indivisible.
- Where harm is indivisible, the inability to apportion does not bar recovery; the responsible defendants bear the risk that the harm cannot be divided for damages purposes.

## Conclusion

The court allowed Landers to proceed against both defendants on a joint-and-several theory because the alleged spills combined to produce one indivisible injury to the lake, making precise apportionment impracticable and unnecessary for recovery.


Landers v. E. Tex. Salt Water Disposal Co., 248 S.W.2d 731 (Tex. 1952)