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WEST VIRGINIA RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Property owners’ descendants battle over gas and oil royalties

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WEST UNION – The heirs of two landowners who have partnered on a lease for oil and gas production are disputing the royalty percentage each is allowed according to the original deeds.

James M. Sutton, Willis G. Tetrick III, Amy Tetrick Buckley and Carolyn A. Sutton, as trustee under the John Y. Sutton Trust, filed a lawsuit Dec. 16 in Doddridge Circuit Court against the Dodd Family Limited Partnership.

According to the complaint, the plaintiffs are heirs of Virginia Tetrick, who was given a 75 percent interest in the oil and gas leases on a 711-acre tract of land in West Virginia. The suit claims Charles S. Parr’s heirs gave Tetrick the lease rights in 1950, but were not authorized to give more than a 50 percent stake according to Parr’s original 1906 deed. The defendants are the heirs of William V. Neely, who in 1918 received 75 percent of the oil and gas leases from Parr. The plaintiffs claim the 1918 lease to Neely contained a mistake concerning the percentage of the royalties Neely and his heirs own.

The plaintiffs seek the court’s determination of the percentage of the royalties each party is entitled to receive. They are represented by Charles G. Johnson of the Clarksburg law firm Jackson Kelly PLLC in Clarksburg.

Doddridge Circuit Court case number 15-C-54

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