CHARLESTON — A Kanawha County resident is suing Legacy Exploration LLC, an oil and gas company, citing alleged larceny.
Alice Starr filed a complaint on May 11 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Legacy Exploration LLC alleging that the oil and gas company deprived plaintiff of her right of passage by erecting a fence and gate on her property in an attempt to extract oil.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that, in 2014, she found out that the defendant placed a fence and gate on the subject property to extract oil from a well. The installed gate was locked, which prevented the plaintiff from entering her property, and she was even denied of keys for access, she says. The suit says the defendant claimed the right to drill on the property because of a 1940 agreement, but the plaintiff says the well had been abandoned for at least 10 years, meaning any agreement was terminated and that the plaintiff is the rightful owner of the oil being produced by the well.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks temporary and/or permanent injunction; full accounting of all production from the well; identification of all parties who may hold working interest in the subject well; a key to the gate obstructing the plaintiff's access to her property; consequential, incidental and compensatory damages; punitive damages; all attorney fees, expenses, costs; and all other relief as the court may find proper. She is represented by L. Richard Dorsey of L. Richard Dorsey, Attorney at Law in Hurricane.
Kanawha Circuit Court Case number 16-c-713