Johnson v. Kansas Natural Gas Co.

Citations

• 90 Kan. 565
• 135 P. 589
• 1913 Kan. LEXIS 267

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Action — Accounting — Product of Gas Wells — Measure of Damages. In an action for an accounting by a tenant in common of lands from which the defendant had taken the product of six producing gas wells for a period of several years and had sold the same, marketing it through pipe lines to which other wells belonging to the defendant were connected, the measure of damages is the fair and reasonable value of the gas at the time and place at which it was taken.</p> <p>2. -Bufden of Proving Allowances for Expenses on Defendant. In the case stated, the plaintiff is entitled to recover the amount the gas sold for, less the fair and reasonable expense of marketing; the rule in suits for accounting generally obtains, and the defendant has the burden of proving what allowances he is entitled to.</p> <p>§• - Findings Based in Part on the Trial Court’s General Information and Knowledge of Local Conditions Upheld. Where in such a case the defendant fails to produce proof showing the approximate quantity of gas taken, or the net price it sold for, or evidence showing the reasonable rental value of the pipe lines, and there is a wide variance in the testimony of the witnesses and the claims of the parties, estimates of the quantity taken and the fair and reasonable expense of transporting the same to market, made by the trial court upon a consideration of all the evidence as well as upon the court’s general information and knowledge of the history and conditions of the gas field where the wells are located, will be upheld.</p> <p>4. -- Improper Charges by the Gas Company. In the case stated, the defendant, the Kansas Natural Gas Company, owned a large interest in the stock and securities of the pipe lines through which the gas in question, together with the product of many other gas wells, was transported to market. Held, that the plaintiff can not be charged w'ith the burden of paying any part of the sums expended in the purchase of the stock a