Dahl v. Petroleum Geophysical Co.

Appeal by Petroleum Geophysical Company from a judgment awarding punitive damages in favor of Merle and Marie Dahl, based on a jury verdict rendered in the Fifteenth Judicial District, Sheridan County.

Merle and Marie Dahl (Dahl) sued Petroleum Geophysical Company (PGC) for damages claimed to have occurred to their farmlands when a seismograph hole drilled and “shot” by PGC brought a continuous water flow to the farm surface, which flow PGC failed to plug.

The Dahl complaint was in two counts for actual and punitive damages. The jury, on the submitted issue of comparative (called “contributory”…