Underkofler v. Vanasek

Greetings kind reader. Today's topic is a very interesting court case that was heard before the Texas Supreme Court in 2000. The case centers around a dispute between landlord and tenant. Like most "interesting" court cases the legal issues are quite dull while the facts are sensational.

It so happens that Mr. Underkofler was an unfortunate tenant with a wacky landlord. You might say that the landlord in this case, Mr. Vanasek, is eccentric, but it is more likely that you'll say he's crazy. For Mr. Vanasek loves to fulminate. To fulminate is to hurl denunciations, menaces, or censures. It also means to explode. Mr. Vanasek loves gophers . . . a lot. He loves gophers more than ice cream, humans, or even a nice lawn.

Soon after Underkofler moved into Vanasek's rental house, located adjacent to Vanasek's primary residence, Underkofler realized that there were quite a few gophers inhabiting his backyard. He requested that Mr. Vanasek hire a pest control specialist. Vanasek immediately began to fulminate. Underkofler fled the scene and retreated to the safety of his rental house to escape the angry tirade. Understandably upset, Underkofler hired an exterminator himself. However, the exterminator was never able to rid Underkofler of the sub-terranian rodents because Vanasek verbally assaulted the exterminator and the exterminator's mother each time the exterminator attempted to service Underkofler's yard.

Soon, Underkofler's residence was overcome by an infestation of gophers. Underkofler's various attempts at self-help were unsuccesful because they were intentionally thwarted by his landlord. If Underkofler tried to poison the rodents, Vanasek would clean up the poison and then feed the animals carrots and lettuce. Vanasek was so generous to the gophers that Underkofler began to complain about the stench of rotting vegetables after Vanasek threw more vegetables over the fence than the thousands of gophers could injest before the food began to rot. At trial, an expert from the Fish and Game Commission testified that he had never seen so many gophers in such a small area and that the existence of this "gopher paradise" was definitely due to Vanasek's efforts to accomodate them.

So Underkofler did the only thing a reasonably prudent person would do under the same or similar circumstances. He piled some sandbags around his back porch, and armed with a .22 caliber rifle equipped with a silencer, began to "take out" the hapless gophers. As soon as he saw what was happening, Vanasek, inexplicably dressed in black and wearing face paint, tried to sneak up on Underkofler. In an attempt to enter the bunker and "take out" Underkofler, Vanasek was shot twice in the right knee.

Anyway, the neighbors sued each other but I've already told you the only really interesting part of the story.