Shell Petroleum Corp. v. Town of Fairfax

This is an appeal from a judgment entered in the district court of Osage county in favor of the town of Fairfax, plaintiff below, against the Shell Petroleum Corporation and other oil operators and refiners operating in the watershed of the Arkansas river above the town of Fairfax, for damages for pollution of the water supply of the town of Fairfax. The parties will be referred to as in the trial court.

Since about 1911, plaintiff had been obtaining water for its municipally owned waterworks from a well located some three miles west of the town in the Arkansas river bottom, and about…