NEW MARTINSVILLE – A Texas company is seeking declaration from the court in a dispute with an Alabama company regarding a well in Wetzel County.
Bounty Minerals LLC filed a complaint Feb. 12 in Wetzel Circuit Court against Diversified Gas & Oil Corp. seeking declaratory judgment and ejectment.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff owns undivided interest in minerals of a 328 gross acre tract of land in Wetzel County that it acquired in 2012. After leasing the land to Antero, the suit states an active well was found on the land owned by the defendant. The plaintiff claims the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection records state the well did not produce from 1996 to 2016.
The plaintiff seeks a declaration stating that the defendant's lease has terminated and is no longer enforceable and an order of ejectment against the defendant to cease possession of the land and surrender it to the plaintiff.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against the defendant, to eject the defendant from the land, damages, actual special, punitive and court costs and any further relief the court grants. It is represented by Paul B. Westbrook of Harris, Finley & Bogle PC in Fort Worth, Texas.
Wetzel Circuit Court case number 18-C-9