Landowners in Pennsylvania who had leased land for fracking won a class action lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy, Inc. in early September, 2013. See the news report. The reported settlement amount is $7.5 million.
The law suit charged that Chesapeake cheated landowners of royalties from the natural gas mines. This was achieved by charging for costs associated with bringing the gas to market even though the leases expressly prohibited such charges. Royalties paid on leases declined by as much as 90% due to such market charges.
PRI has a detailed interview with one farmer who was cheated. This interview is from before the settlement was announced.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.