Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Gary Miller on May 17, 2014 at 12:59am

Robin Hood,

Harrison County case no. CVH 2012-0016

Here is part of  a 4/3/2014 filing by the Court that I was given.

" In the case at bar, this court has found breach of contract in the assignment of the 1984 lease from Kimble to R.H.D.K Oil and Gas LLC. The breach occurred when Kimble did not receive consent as required from the Hoops before assignment. The court now must examine the effect of said transfer in light of the Harding decision.

The lease contains no forfeiture clause for improper assignment. In fact, the lease is completely silent as to remedy for violation of the no sale or trade clause. Plaintiffs assert forfeiture is the proper remedy. The court finds no basis for this assertion. The general principal of leases in regards to forfeiture is that they are discouraged. The lease being devoid of mention regarding forfeiture as a remedy, the Court finds forfeiture to be unavailable.

Defendants claim that since Plaintiffs request forfeiture Harding cannot apply to this case. The Court disagrees. In Harding it was the trail court, not Plaintiff who determined forfeiture unavailable.

The Court finds a clear breach of the assignment clause.

The Court finds forfeiture to not be an appropriate remedy.

The Court finds that since forfeiture cannot occur, waiver and estoppel are not ripe for consideration as defenses by Defendant.

The Court finds that invalidating the transfer from Kimble to Red Hill LLC INC, is the appropriate remedy for violating the no sale or trade clause."

  

Permalink Reply by Robert and Valorie Fulton on May 17, 2014 at 1:46am

Thanks, Gary. But it is still unclear. Does this void all contracts the LLC has with AEP? I guess the Ohio State Supreme Court is going to have to make some decisions before this whole ordeal is solved!!

Permalink Reply by Robert and Valorie Fulton on May 17, 2014 at 1:41am

He is working contingency.

Permalink Reply by Gary Miller on May 17, 2014 at 3:08am

Your Welcome, Unfortunately it does seem like there is a long way to go.

My lease is similar but with an arbitration clause, I will be watching closely and hoping the best for everyone. Hopefully Red Hill can come up with a fair settlement to satisfy; I don't think dragging it out is good for either side.

“Does this void all contracts the LLC has with AEP?” I doubt it. If a lease doesn’t have a no assignment clause Red Hill can assign with no issue.

If a lease has a no assignment clause then Red Hill would need approval to assign to anyone. That includes Red Hill LLC INC. or AEP. The way I see it, if any of these leases in question have already been assigned to AEP then that would be yet another violation!

Hope the best for all of you!

Permalink Reply by Steve Madsen on June 9, 2014 at 5:58pm

 Consent to Assignment? How old is your lease, & how much $$$ would it take for you to give consent?

Permalink Reply by Robin Hood on May 17, 2014 at 11:39am

Gary, Robert and Valerie,

Thank you for the information, I always considered the effrontery  of ignoring this "no assignment clause with out prior written consent " to be a act of total disregard of the lessor's owner ship of the land. When I first was informed of the transfer, I notified Chesapeake in writing that the lease could not have been assigned as no written consent had been requested or given and that they needed to resolve the issue with Range Resources.

The discovery of the transfer happened only days before our lease expired with Range Resources. Our current stance is we have notified Chesapeake with the aforementioned reasons that they are prohibited from drilling on our land. Our lease with Range expired two years ago.

So our lease is held in limbo, as we refuse to accept the yearly bonus check from Chesapeake. They refuse to release our lease or even negotiate a resolution. At this point, Court is our only avenue, but we decided to wait and see. This recent court ruling gives us hope.

If that ruling means we go back to Range, so be it. I have no respect for the current leasee.

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