CLARKSBURG — A Connecticut man who is the owner of oil and gas interests is suing Jay-Bee Oil & Gas for failure to pay him for his gas rights.
Jay-Bee Production Company and BB Land were also named as defendants in the suit.
Francis Kaess owns the oil and gas interests underlying multiple tracts of land in Union District in Pleasants County, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
Kaess claims between 2016 and 2018, he and the defendants signed multiple documents regarding the properties and the oil and gas rights.
"At an indeterminate time between the signing of the documents... (leases, modification, and or ratifications) and the filing of [other] documents ... Plaintiff was furnished with a document entitled, in part, 'Division Order' regarding the ... units; Plaintiff did not sign said document," the complaint states.
The defendants have since placed payments issued to the plaintiff in suspense unless and until the plaintiff signs the division order document, according to the suit.
"Based upon information and belief, Defendants have made deductions from payments placed in 'suspense' for Plaintiff in appropriately from production out of the Marcellus Shale formation," the complaint states.
Kaess claims the defendants are extracting oil and/or gas from the underlying tracts and are not paying him in accordance with his rights.
Kaess is seeking compensatory damages. He is represented by J. Anthony Edmond Jr. and Michael B. Baum of Edmond and Baum in Wheeling.
The case is assigned to District Judge Thomas Kleeh.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number: 1:22-cv-00051
