Family sues Consol over gas drilling royalties
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A family from Mount Pleasant Borough, Westmoreland County, is suing Consol Gas Co., charging that the royalties they are being paid for the gas drilling rights on their property are being improperly calculated and that the company is taking improper deductions for post-production costs.
The suit, filed this month in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, seeks class-action status, and according to the attorneys involved, could ultimately include as many as 1,000 plaintiffs.
A similar complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh against Energy Corporation of America, and it could include as many as 100 class members if it is certified.
It is unclear how much money could be involved in both cases, said Mark Nevins, a spokesman for the law firm Caroselli, Beachler, McTiernan and Conboy, which represents the plaintiffs in both cases.
According to the lawsuit filed in Common Pleas Court, Earl Hall Jr. entered an oil and gas lease in March 1998, and his parents, Earl D. Hall Sr. and Betty Jane Hall, entered such a lease in October 2002.
Consol acquired the leases in 2010.
The lawsuit, which includes a claim for breach of contract, charges that Consol violated the lease agreement by taking impermissible volumetric deductions when calculating the natural gas royalties.
The Halls said they didn't discover the improper calculations until September.
The Halls also are seeking a court-ordered accounting of the royalty payments.
"The named plaintiffs suspect that the royalty payments on all leases subject to this class action were incorrect from the first royalty payment to the present."
Ten plaintiffs are named in the federal lawsuit against Energy Corporation of America, based in Colorado.
The first of the plaintiffs entered lease agreements beginning in 2002. The most recent lease was signed in 2009.
The federal complaint includes the same claims for breach of contract and accounting.
Neither Consol nor Energy Corporation of America returned calls seeking comment Monday evening.
First Published November 30, 2010 12:00 am
