CLARKSBURG — A federal judge approved a settlement finally putting an end to a 2013 lawsuit against EQT Production Company for royalty payments.
The settlement provides for $53.5 million into a settlement fund and counsel requested $50,000 for each of the named class representatives and attorneys will receive one-third of the settlement for attorneys' fees, according to the July 22 final order filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
"Each class member will receive a recovery which is based upon the amount of money (deductions) taken from their royalty income less fees and costs...except that there will be some class members who would have received less than $200.00 and it was in the best interest of the class to assure each class member would receive at least that amount and it will not significantly affect the remaining class members’ recovery," the order states.
U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey also wrote in the final order that there were no objections filed to any part of the settlement agreement.
Even after six years of "intense litigation" the final settlement agreement was not completed until January and not signed by the defendants until February, according to the final order.
"The litigation and the settlement negotiations were intense and adversarial," Bailey wrote. "There was no collusion. Settlement was not even mentioned until after the Court ruled on essentially all pretrial motions."
Earlier this month, an order was filed granting EQT's motions to exclude from class settlement two leases litigated in separate actions.
"Defendants move to exclude John Fout, Nancy Fout, J&N Management, LLC, and J&N Management Enterprises, LLC from the class settlement preliminarily approved by this Court with regard to their interest in EQT Production Lease 300648 because the Fouts filed a separate royalty deduction claim against EQT Production in this Court regarding that Lease, and judgment was entered against them after a jury trial," the order states.
EQT also moved to exclude Arnold K. Richards and Mary L. Richards from the class settlement because a judgment was entered against EQT after a jury trial with them as well.
In the lawsuit, which was first filed in Doddridge Circuit Court before being removed to federal court, the plaintiffs alleged that EQT took deductions, reduced the plaintiffs' royalty payments, overcharged them for deductions and otherwise reduced the royalty volume and/or price.
The plaintiffs are represented by Marvin W. Masters of The Masters Law Firm; Michael W. Carey and Robert E. Douglas of Carey, Scott, Douglas & Kessler; and Thomas W. Pettit of Thomas W. Pettit LC.
EQT is represented by Stephen E. Hastings and David K. Hendrickson of Hendrickson & Long.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia Case number: 1:13-cv-00151