March 28, 2012 — Barrett Law Group Wins Important Motion for Virginia Coal Bed Methane Owners
BLG attorneys together with a team of plaintiff attorneys from Virginia, New York, Tennessee and Mississippi received good news on behalf of their clients who are coalbed methane gas owners in Virginia.
The Order and Opinion issued on March 28, 2012 by the Honorable Pamela Meade Sargent granted leave to file an Amended Complaint for Virginia citizens who are seeking injunctive relief against EQT gas company to have their royalties released. In her learned Opinion, Judge Sargent ruled that counsel for Plaintiffs were correct that the law established by the Virginia Supreme Court in Harrison-Wyatt, LLC v. Ratliff, 593 S.E.2d 234, 235, 238 (Va. 2004), was in fact the law of the land. The Court’s Order and Opinion is important for Virginia citizens in that each confirms that unless a coal deed directly and unequivocally transfers the rights to the coalbed methane gas, those rights to that gas are retained by the land owner.
Barrett Law Group believes that this ruling is a gigantic step toward helping those persons whose royalties for coalbed methane in Virginia were placed into state run escrow accounts by EQT without proper justification receive long overdue relief.
The team of Plaintiffs’ counsel, including BLG, have filed other class actions on behalf of owners of coalbed methane in Virginia regarding royalty non-payment or underpayment against EQT and CNX .
Click below for a link to the PDF of the Court’s Opinion