Friday's Internet Edition, July 03, 2009.

The case was one of four filed in Roane County against gas producers after an earlier suit against Chesapeake Energy, Columbia Energy Group and NiSource that alleged royalty owners were being shortchanged by the producers.

The Chesapeake suit resulted in a $404 million verdict for royalty owners after a three-week trial in Roane Circuit Court in January 2007.

Defendants in the later suits included Dominion and Equitable Production. Chesapeake, Dominion and Equitable are the largest natural gas exploration and production companies in West Virginia.

Other suits involved East Resources and North Coast Energy.

Marvin Masters of Charleston, the lead attorney in all of the cases, said each is different, although they have one thing in common.

“None of them are exactly like that,” Masters said of the Chesapeake case that resulted in one of the largest verdicts in state history and the third largest in the nation in 2007.

“But they are all similar in the sense they all relate to deductions taken from royalties,” Masters said.

Currently being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Chesapeake case involves 10,440 royalty owners. The Dominion case involves more than twice that number, about 25,000 royalty owners.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph R. Goodwin has given a preliminary approval to the Dominion settlement. A hearing is set for Jan. 21 to consider final approval.

Starting last week, notices are being sent the royalty owners informing of their rights under the proposed settlement. A toll-free number has been set up (1-866-475-7755) and Web site established (dominionclass.com) to allow royalty owners to learn more about the proposed settlement, which is being administered by the Arnett & Foster CPA firm in Charleston.

Dominion had transferred the case from state court to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act signed into law by President Bush in 2005.

The other four lawsuits were filed after the Chesapeake case was filed in 2003, but before the large verdict was returned. They also came after the federal legislation that allowed class-action lawsuits to be moved to federal court.

In all, three of those four suits ended up being transferred to federal court by the defendants.

Masters said the suit against Equitable is set for trial next year in Goodwin’s court.

The suit against North Coast Energy was settled for $40,000, according to federal court records. That case was never certified as a class action.

A suit against East Resources is still pending in Roane Circuit Court. Masters said he expects that case, which involves over 5,000 royalty owners, will be certified as a class-action suit. A trial date has not been set.

Masters said he anticipated a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court as to whether the court will hear the Chesapeake appeal either later this year or sometime in 2009.

If the appeal is accepted, he said both sides will be given time to prepare briefings and arguments.