Williams v. Amoco Production Co.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Herd, J.:

This is an action for damages to real property resulting from the presence of natural gas in plaintiffs’ irrigation water. The plaintiff landowners (hereafter plaintiffs or appellees) claim the natural gas escaped from two of the. defendant’s Hugoton gas wells. A jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs for $656,006.40, and the defendant, Amoco Production Company, appeals.

Irrigation water in southwest Kansas is derived primarily from water-bearing aquifers known as: (1) The Pleistocene deposits, located at a depth of approximately…