The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-18
Former Kansan Asks Three
Millions for Gas.
Fathers Farm Leased to Gas
Co. During Absence.
HE WANDERED 10 YEARS
Then Returned and Claimed
Share of Fortune.
Defense Insists He Should Sue
His Mother.

Coffeyville, Kan, May 1S.-Wheth-
er Axel E. Johnson of Kingman, Ariz.,
is suing his mother, sisters and broth
er or the Kansas Natural Gas Co.,
for 100000 is one of the many le-
gal points raised in his claim as
missing heir of his father, John A.
Johnson, which has been concluded in
the district court here except for the
filing of briefs which have been re-
quested by the judge because of the
unusual number of legal questions IN
volved.
The elder johnson owned $50 acres
of ground near this city and on 1t
reared Axel, Walter and four daugh-
ters. Axel left home to seek his for
tune in the west % years ago, and for
eight years maintained a correSpon-
dence with his family and then drop
ped from sight. Several years ago the
father died and soon after Mrs. John
son and her five children signed a
lease to the Kansas Natural Gas Co.
permitting that company to drill four
wells on the farm for an annual rent
al of $500, additional wells to be paid
for at the rate of $500 a well. Six
wells have been drilled and the wo-
men heirs are receiving $1,000 a year
from the gas company.
He Sues for $1O,OOO,OOO.
In November, 1910. after an unex-
planned absence of L years, Axel, then
SO years of age, visited his sister in
Colorado and there met his mother
From them he learned of the gas lease
and he Immediately entered suit
through a Denver firm of lawyers for
$1O,0O0,0OO, alleging that the gas
company has willfully wronged him
and that he was entitled to the entire
output of the company, under the rule
of law that if a person takes anoth-
er'S property and mixes it with his
own so that there is no means of iden-
tification, the sufferer is entitled to
all.
This contention was set aside on the
pleas of the gas company that the
stated term lease of the Johnson farm
made meters unnecessary for the
wells there and that the company was
acting in good faith.
Asks One-Twelfth of $3,O0O,0 900.
Defeated on this point, Axel chang
ed the demand to 100000 setting
this up as fair estimate of the value
of gas taken from the johnson wells,
asserting, and this is not disputed,
that the wells were among the best in
the rich Kansas field and that the es-
tlmated output is from 10, 100000 to
100000 cubic feet of gas a day
for each well, and asking that his
share, one-twelfth of the total, be al
lotted to him.
in the signing of the lease, asserting
that its officers knew nothing of the
missing son and the lease is quoted to
show that Mrs. Johnson and five chill
dren guaranteed the company peace
full possession of the rights hereby
conveyed
Having set up this answer, the gas
company made the further move that
If the suit, obtained, the Judgment
should be rendered against Mrs. john
son and children, mother, brother and
sisters of Axel, because they have
knowingly signed away his rights;
that it was their duty to bring him in
to the case so that he might have been
declared legally dead under that rule
of law which holds a person unheard
of for seven years may be so declared.
Tells of Long Travels.
AXel Johnson had little difficulty in
establishing his identity, a scar on
his head resulting from a blow of a
boy companions baseball bat being
shown as evidence. He was question
ed as to his whereabouts and told of
wandering over the west and of visit
ing cities as far east as st. Louis and
even passing through Kansas without
going home. No reason was brought
out for his silence toward his family.
If the court holds that johnson is
entitled to damages and then decides
who shall reimburse him, a tangled
question is involved as to the amount
due him. The points raised as to
whether he is entitled to the value of
the gas as it lay in the ground, its val
ne when brought to the surface or it's
value as determined by the price the
company sold it for. less expenses.
The question of valuation dates from
the signing of the lease, Jan. 8, 1906.
The four sisters and brother of the
plaintiff who are made parties to the
suit by the gas company's contention
are Mrs. Mildred Davis of Manitou,
Colo; Mrs. Selma Keifer and Mrs. Es-
Their Rowley of Chanute, Kan, and
Mrs. Holden Anderson of Las Vegas,
n, M, and Walter Johnson.