RIPLEY – The West Virginia Baptist Convention is suing Mountaineer Gas Services after it claims the gas company failed to honor its agreements for free and/or reduced-rate gas.
Mountaineer Gas Services LLC; Enervest Energy Institutional Fund XII-A LP; Enervest Energy Institutional Fund XII-WIB LP; Enervest Energy Institutional Fund XII-WIC LP; Mountaineer Gas Services Inc.; and Energy Corporation of America Inc. were all named as defendants in the suit.
West Virginia Baptist Convention is the owner of the owner of the fee simple interest in two tracts of real estate in Jackson County totaling 1,260 acres and, as such, it owns both the surface and the mineral interests in the real estate, according to a complaint filed Feb.17 in Jackson Circuit Court.
WVBC claims the defendants leased the oil and gas rights to the plaintiff’s real estate and agreed to provide the convention with gas from the gas produced from the wells on the leases at no cost or at rates substantially reduced from market value.
The defendants have not provided WVBC with the free and/or reduced-rate gas pursuant to the leases and continues to not provide gas to which the plaintiff is entitled, according to the suit.
WVBC claims the defendants have intentionally failed and refused to provide the free and/or reduced-rate gas pursuant to the leases.
The defendants have entered into a scheme and design to intentionally mislead WVBC into believing it was receiving all the free and/or reduced-rate gas due to it pursuant to the various leases into which the parties have entered, according to the suit.
WVBC claims the defendants intentionally violated its contractual duty to the convention and, as a result of the conduct, the plaintiff was damaged in that it was deprived of and are owed compensation for the free and/or reduced-rate gas it did not receive.
The defendants violated and breached their contracts with the convention and caused damages, according to the suit.
WVBC is seeking compensatory and punitive damages with pre- and post-judgment interest. It is being represented by Leah R. Chappell of Adams, Fisher & Chappell PLLC.
Jackson Circuit Court case number: 16-C-9