Friendswood Development Co. v. Smith-Southwest Industries, Inc.

DANIEL, Justice.

The question in this case is whether landowners who withdrew percolating ground waters from wells located on their own land are liable for subsidence which resulted on lands of others in the same general area.

Smith-Southwest Industries and other landowners located in the Seabrook and Clear Lake area of Harris County brought this class action in 1973 against Friends-wood Development Company and its corporate parent, Exxon Corporation, alleging that severe subsidence of their lands was *22caused by the defendants’ past and continuing withdrawals of vast quantities of underground…