Paragraph 19 Chesapeake Class Action Lawsuit

For anyone who had a contract that was flipped to Chesapeake and they are trying to renew or extend your contract at an unfair rate under the Paragraph 19 at $15 or $30 or have and will "graciously offer you a $500 or $1000 sign on bonus, this is to make you aware that there is a class action lawsuit and you do have rights and there is further information you do need to here.  There is a high probability that they are breaking the law and you should be getting what everyone else is getting.  I know for a fact that I was told by Range that they had to renegotiate any extension with me at todays going price and I had to approve any extension and that had to be the same for anyone who took over the contract.  At the time my contract was written, Range owned Great Lakes and used an old Great Lakes contract.  They told me that when the lease was presented, read to me, signed by me and again when it was flipped to Chesapeake.  Never did Range present paragraph 19 in any other way.  If anyone else out there is in the same predicament as I, we need to all stand together on this.  If you have been coerced into signing, don't give up.  Being coerced and lied to still does not make things legal.  They can bully and lie all they want, but it won't get them anywhere.  Stay strong, stay united but stay together.  I will have meetings, we will get together and we will prevail.  I have been working with other leasing companies to bid on land here in our area and they are interested in leasing here at great rates so no one has to worry about getting a good rate.  I can tell you they continually lied to me because they don't know the contract they took over.  They think they do but maybe they should have spoken with Range before they took these contracts over.  We all worked hard to get what we have and no one has the right to steal it from us.  My mother raise me to be a good, kind, generous person, God Bless that wonderful Lady.  My handshake is my word.  I will do anything for anyone. 

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Permalink Reply by Corvette on December 3, 2012 at 11:37am

Gail, I signed with Great Lakes also. I had  paragraph 19 taken out of the contract and it was supposed to expire Nov. 28th. I went to the courthouse today and found out that Chesapeake bought the lease earlier this year. My attorney tells me that Chesapeake is only offering $300 an acre now. In the lease they can hold you if they commence with a well. There is a proposed well that I would be in eventually so I suppose they will try and use this language now I would be interested in  forming a group..

Permalink Reply by Corvette on December 4, 2012 at 1:33am

By the way the only activity by Chesapeake has been water testing this past summer, other than that nothing going on here. They told me iast summer I was in a proposed unit.

Permalink Reply by Robin Hood on December 4, 2012 at 2:46am

We refused to cash the check for the extension. Chesapeake does not play fair. They are a multibillion dollar company that bamboozles and bullies the landowner into however they want to interpret the lease.

I have a list of all the land owners who were part of the Oct 1, 2011 assignment and conveyance of 330 oil and gas leases from Range to Chesapeake.You can get a copy at the Lisbon court house. It's in book 1854 pg 150 filed 2/8/12,29 pages. These were all the leases that Range had in Columbiana County. I have planned to use that list to identify any great lake lease holders that had an addendum with a paragraph that reads:

Lessee(Great Lakes) agrees that there shall be no full assignment of this lease without Lessor's(Landowner) prior written consent; however, Lessee shall have the ability to sell partial interests in the herein lease without Lessor's written consent, as long as operational authority is not transferred from herein Lessee. Lessor's consent shall not be unreasonably withheld of delayed.

We were never notified nor requested to provide written approval by Great Lakes and our lease expired last winter. As far as we are concerned we have no lease and have notified Chesapeake with these facts and to please go back to Great Lake(Range) and explain the transfer was not properly done and that that lease is no longer valid. They refuse and continue to hold a claim on our property by citing paragraph 19.

We need to notify everyone who was part of this transfer, set up a meeting and discuss the issues. That way everyone can select the group that best fits their situation. Count me in as part of the group. I have been studying this for the last 10 months.

I will friend you, if you want more details, call me gail and corvette. I am a landowner who has been wronged and will fight to make it right.Chesapeake knows if they pull this trick on a hundred people, 95 will capitulate for many reasons. Then they only have to settle with 5 and the confidentially clause they make you sign silences you so they can keep pulling the same trick.

Permalink Reply by Corvette on December 4, 2012 at 3:17am

As soon as I found out that Chesapeake had the lease from Range I knew there would be problems. Even though the lease says  it expires on Nov.28th my attorney is not sure they will release it. What a joke!

Permalink Reply by Cen on December 4, 2012 at 5:23am

All CHK people are crooks, especially the inhouse landmen!

0i7okn54zwbdoPermalink Reply by 0i7okn54zwbdo on December 13, 2012 at 2:14pm

"We refused to cash the check for the extension."

That does not void the transaction.

"We were never notified nor requested to provide written approval by Great Lakes and our lease expired last winter."

Case law suggests that consent is not needed when a company (in this case Range) sells all of their leases in a given area.  If they were to cherry pick their lease position and sell a few at a time then the consent to assign would be needed.  As they sold everything the precedent says that the company may conduct such a sale without the consent of individuals.

Permalink Reply by karen brown on December 4, 2012 at 1:08pm

We did not have this problem with Cheasapeake but don't trust Range.  Our first lease was with Range and they tried to pull a fast one on our group.  Some of the landowners had to get an attorney.  They actually drilled a well on one property after the lease was up.  It ended up they surrendered all their leases that expired and pulled out of the well site.  It also caused bad feelings between neighbors in our area.  Be careful, don't sign anything until you have someone look at it.

 

Permalink Reply by Gail Wypasek on December 9, 2012 at 8:30am

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I haven't been able to use my computer, I had a clone issue, its been awful.  With what I have to take to court on paragraph 19 and dealings between Range and Cheasapeake, I don't see how they could win.  The Great Lakes contract that was use by Range on us all has already been deemed invalid for numourous reasons in New York and PA.  I don't know about most of you but I did not want any extensions and was guaranteed that any extension/renewal had to extension/renewal had to be renegociated at todays rates.  Cheasapeake can not change that agreement no matter what.  That is still what the terms as described to us was.  Also, I can tell you that Cheasapeake is offering what you would have gotten in lease money, along with $1,000 sign on bonus.  If anyone is willing to take that, I can get that for you with you not having to pay any lawyer any percentage. Or you can sign up with an attorney and waste 6% or however much they want!!! 

I will be setting up meetings somewhere convenient for everyone.  We already have a class action lawsuit file here in Hancock County that anyone can become part of and I'm sure the lawfirm that is handling this one can file more and are quite capable to handle them.  You definitely want someone who wants to win these claims not be on the side they can make the most money on and take the payoff cause I've seen that happen and you watch your attorney look like theyve gone to the other side in the middle of the case and they have.

Permalink Reply by Robin Hood on December 13, 2012 at 1:19am

Gail,

What is the law firm that has filed the class action suit? I know someone who cashed the check at the $10 an acre rate despite advice to the contrary. I would like to pass on this information to them.

Permalink Reply by Roberta Rogers on February 13, 2013 at 1:28pm

Just wondering if you have joined any class action suit going on right now?  We were contacted by a lawyer in Weirton to join theirs.  They are doing West Virginia now and waiting for a summary judgement from the judge and when that is done they will do one in Ohio.  We went down to talk to them about it but the agreement they gave us was so confusing we didn't do it as of right now.

Permalink Reply by Jeff on May 31, 2013 at 1:58am

Have you done anything more with this?  I have a similar problem with my lease. 

Permalink Reply by Gail Wypasek on May 31, 2013 at 5:49am

For anyone that is interested, you can contact Eric Frankovitch at his office in Weirton, at 304-723-4400.  He has class action law suits in West Virginia and Ohio.  Range wrote these contracts and flipped them to Chesapeake under Great Lakes paper and they agreed to re-negotiate at renewal when they wrote them.  When flipped to Chesapeake, Chesapeake never stopped to check what Range had agreed to with their clients, but they are obligated to the original agreement made by Range.  Range is paying the people in Pennsylvania per their agreement but Chesapeake wants to interpret paragraph 19 to their benefit and not the way Range told all of us when the contract was written how they interpreted it.  Whatever you do,,DO NOT CASH THE LOUSY $15, $30 OR WHATEVER CHECKS THEY TRY TO COERCE YOU TO CASH.  SEND THEM BACK AND WRITE VOID ON THEM AND JOIN A CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT.  RANGE IS PAYING OUT ON THESE GREAT LAKES CONTRACTS THAT WERE FLIPPED TO CHESAPEAKE IN OHIO AND WEST VIRGINIA THAT THEY HAVE KEPT IN PA.  FIGHT BACK IN OHIO AND WEST VIRGINIA!!!!  DON'T LET CHESAPEAKE GET AWAY WITH PAYING YOU NOTHING FOR TOTAL CONTROL OF ALL OF YOUR LAND FROM THE TOP TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH FOR PEANUTS!!!  WHEN THEY WILL MAKE MILLIONS ON YOUR $15???!!!  HIGHWAY ROBERY!!!  You will get a better negotiated contract with a much better lease premium and a higher royalty!  Fight! Fight! Fight!  Stay Together!  Stay Strong!

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