Bennett v. Howard

Mrs. Era Lucille Howard, as surviving wife, for herself and two minor daughters for whom she is guardian, brought this suit against Frank W. Bennett and Bennett Oil Corporation, for exemplary damages for the death of her husband, W. E. Howard, who was killed by a gas pressure explosion or blowout in an oil well' located in the Bryson oil field in Jack County. Respondents based their right to recover exemplary damages on the ground that petitioners’ field superintendent, H. R. Smith, was guilty of gross negligence in instructing Howard to run tubing into an oil well ‘under pressure.” At the…