Gigot v. Cities Service Oil Co‪.‬

The opinion of the court was delivered by This is a class action suit brought to recover the reasonable value of helium extracted from natural gas. The case was settled and Amoco Production Company (defendant/cross-claimant) appeals from the district court's award of attorney fees. In May 1971, plaintiff landowners brought this suit in Finney County District Court to recover the reasonable value of helium contained in helium-bearing natural gas extracted from their land. Plaintiffs owned land in or near Finney County from which natural gas was severed under oil and gas leases held by defendant lessee-producers. The producers originally named in the suit were: Amoco Production Company, represented by Gott, Young & Bogle; Champlin Petroleum Company, represented by Adams, Jones, Robinson and Malone until September 1974, and by Gott, Young & Bogle after that date; Skelly Oil Company (which became Getty Oil Company as the result of a merger and later became Texaco Producing, Inc.) represented by Foulston, Siefkin, Powers & Eberhardt (Foulston); Mobil Oil Corporation, Continental Oil Company, Northern Pump Company, D.R. Lauck Oil Company, Kansas Natural Gas, Inc., and Petroleum, Inc., represented by Hershberger, Patterson, Jones and Roth (Hershberger). Unnamed members of the class were 186 producers who delivered gas into the system serving the Sunflower plant near Scott City, Kansas. The Foulston firm was considered lead counsel in the case with Hershberger and Gott, Young & Bogle acting as co-lead counsel.