MOUNDSVILLE – A Wetzel County couple is suing a natural gas exploration company, claiming it broke a contract promising them royalties for products extracted under an oil lease agreement.
Howard and Linda Henderson filed a lawsuit in Marshall Circuit Court against Grenadier Energy Partners LLC, Grenadier Energy Gathering LLC and Drilling Appalachian Corp., alleging fraud, negligence, civil conspiracy and breach of contract.
According to the complaint, the Hendersons both owned and inherited several hundred acres of land in the Marcellus Shale region, which were leased to the defendants between 2002 and 2013 in exchange for a one-eighth royalty from the sale of oil and gas extracted from the land.
However, the suit states that Grenadier Energy reported and paid royalties on only one of the three products extracted from the Hendersons’ property. The plaintiffs say they discovered the error after another company began operating the wells, providing them with allegedly accurate statements of what was extracted.
The Hendersons seek a jury trial and punitive and compensatory damages in an amount to be proven at trial. They are represented by R. Dean Hartley, J. Michael Prascik and James C. Wright of Hartley & O’Brien PLLC in Wheeling and by James A. Gianola and John F. Gianola of Gianola, Barnum, Bechtel & Jecklin LC in Morgantown. Judge David W. Hummel Jr. is assigned to the case.
Marshall Circuit Court case number 16-C-26H