WEST UNION — Freeport Gas Coal Trust says Harrison County Coal Resources breached its duty to diligently mine on leased property.
Sewell River Coal & Land Corporation and Consolidation Coal Company entered into a lease in 1965 and Sewell merged with Freeport in 1983, according to a complaint filed in Doddridge Circuit Court.
Freeport claims Consolidation assigned its 1965 lease to Murray and then Murray assigned it to Harrison. Murray then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019.
The annual rent is $4,000, but no mining has taken place on the property so no royalties have ever been paid to Freeport. Freeport claims the defendant owed a duty to mine the coal leased according to suitable methods of modern mining and failed to do so.
Freeport is seeking an order requiring the defendant to begin mining on the property. It is represented by W. Howard Sammons II of The Law Office of W. Howard Sammons II in Charleston.
Doddridge Circuit Court case number: 21-C-9