MARTINSBURG – Eleven lawsuits against Antero Resources for oil and gas royalty payment issues were removed to federal court.
Antero Resources, Antero Midstream Partners, Antero Resources Pipeline and Antero Resources Investment were all named as defendants in the suits.
The lawsuits were filed in Harrison Circuit Court in December and removed to federal court on Feb. 12.
Gerald W. Corder; Garnet C. Cottrill; Tracy Bridge; Cheryl Morris; Randall M. Corder; Angela Nicholson; Kevin McCall; Brian McCall; Lorena Krafft; Janet C. Packard and LeRoy Packard; and Marlyn C. Sigmon are residents of West Virginia, Virginia, Florida, Ohio and Tennessee and own oil and gas interests which were leased, assigned or otherwise acquired by Antero.
Antero had duties and responsibilities to the plaintiffs for the development of oil and gas wells on their property.
The plaintiffs claim contrary to their contractual, legal, statutory and common law duties and responsibilities, the defendants continue to take deductions, reduce the plaintiffs’ royalty payments, overcharge them for deductions that they do charge and otherwise reduce and not pay the plaintiffs royalty on volume and/or price and/or by taking the liquid hydrocarbons which are part of the natural gas extracted from the gas and subtracting unauthorized deductions from it.
The defendants have violated their fiduciary responsibility and intentionally violated their contractual duty to the plaintiffs, according to the suits.
The plaintiffs claim the defendants concealed, suppressed and omitted material facts with intent that the plaintiffs would rely upon the same in connection with the bases for charging the plaintiffs for specific services for marketing, transporting and processing and for other service charges associated with the calculation of the plaintiffs’ royalties and deductions.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages. They are being represented by Marvin W. Master of the Masters Law Firm.
The defendants are represented by W. Henry Lawrence, Amy M. Smith and Shaina D. Massie of Steptoe & Johnson.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case numbers: 1:18-cv-00030, 1:18-cv-0031, 1:18-cv-00032, 1:18-cv-00033, 1:18-cv-00034, 1:18-cv-00035, 1:18-cv-00036, 1:18-cv-00037, 1:18-cv-00038, 1:18-cv-00039, 1:18-cv-00040