Sustrik Et Al. v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation‪.‬

The plaintiffs, Mike Sustrik and wife, are the owners by entireties, of coal bearing property in West Pike Run Township, Washington County. Their land adjoins similar property of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation on which the company had conducted a mining operation. The subsurface boundary line between the two properties however had not been located on the vein of coal. In this action of trespass (quare clausum fregit for the taking of coal, brought under 6 of the Act of April 20, 1846, P.L. 411, 12 PS 1442) the evidence was that the defendant by careless mining procedures had removed 1768 tons of coal from the land of the plaintiffs; on the other hand the testimony also indicated that plaintiffs had mined 803 tons of coal from the defendants land. During the course of the trial, negotiations for the settlement of the controversy were carried on between the parties to the action, and their counsel. The discussion principally dealt with the value of the coal removed. The difference in tonnage, in plaintiffs favor, of the coal negligently mined, by each of the parties on the others land, was 965 tons. The plaintiffs were represented at the trial by Palmer J. McCloskey, Esquire, of the Washington County Bar. He, under a settlement agreement with defendants counsel, accepted the defendants check for $750 in full