You said a lot but did not address the issue at hand. Why do I have to lease to ARC? You responded to that as if I actually wanted to bring the gas to the surface and place it on the market, I really DO NOT CARE if the gas is left under the property. If someone wants it then it is As is, where it is. Why should I pay someone to come in an take the steps needed to put the gas on the market??? Face reality, just how "rich" is someone going to get by owning mineral rights a whopping 24.5 acres along with 264 other people? Maybe I have an advantage, I was listed as having ownership of an unassigned .5 acres of ground. Round the corner from where I live there is a vacant lot with a sign stating that .5 acre of ground was for sale. The foot print of my house is larger then that and it would take a lot of vertical height of a gas pocket to make the royalty for the gas amount to more then a few dollars! This contract is a farce and I have no time to deal with ARC! IF this were a legal, "level playing field" ARC would not want to keep the owners from contacting one an other, divide and conquer with ARC making all the gains. If the other co owners want to join ARC then let the other co owners buy my share! ARC IS NOT going to allow that! No, ARC shouts, "Roll over and sign the lease or we will take you to court and have the judge take the property away from you (so that we can buy it and in doing so have more control of the other co owners)".
I know that there is no real money coming in if I agree to ARC's terms (which they are making certain I either will or they will obtain my share of the property). As you state, the production from that property is years in the future. So why bother with the ownership of an unassigned .5 acres of West Virginia dirt????
Add to that the safety record of ARC in Doddridge County, WV during the last 5+ years. Do I want to be that party's "agent" ? After reviewing the safety record of ARC I have decided they are undesirable tenants for any land that carries my name. ARC is an unwanted business partner!
So ARC, not in accordance to the WV laws they state in their exchanges with me, asks the court to do something the WV laws dictates is NOT legal. They tell me they will go to court and ask the judge to force me to sell, if that doesn't work they ask the judge to have the county seize the land and sell it on the courthouse steps. But no, what they did was go to court and ask the judge to hand over the property to them. No one waiting on the court house steps gets to bid. ARC is happy that once again it stretches WV law and got by with it.
However, I have yet to find out who I am suppose to "command" the release of the funds that ARC was ordered to deposit in the names of the non-signers. No address, no titles, nothing has been provided to me. That is not in good faith of WV laws.
And while I am at it, I read in the legal papers that the owners of the land and being prevented by me from enjoyments of their holdings. No, it is ARC who is preventing that because they refused to communicate with me in regards to legit issues over the wording of the contract. The same corporation allows their legal rep to modify a contract to eliminate the problems that ARC would not discuss with me.
Care to try to explain why in one county the contract that ARC demands i sign states that by signing I become an agent of ARC and therefore have to let ARC with hold from my royalties to pay for the construction/operation of the well, while the contract in the county "next door" was amended to state that NOTHING would be removed from my royalty? Two faced ARC!
I asked that question in the original post which at the time I can read above where I am typing this. Remember, ARC states that I had inherited a share of the property back in 1967 but I was not informed that I had partial ownership until the first unsolicited contract from ARC came to my door. No one asked if I wanted the property, no one asked if I wanted to bring the gas to the surface and sell it on the open market. But that did not suit ARC's plan.
Instead I had phone calls from an ARC rep that within seconds I labeled a jerk and decided I had NO Interest in any company that would have him to be their rep. That and the wording of the unsolicited contract were "strike one" and "strike two". They could have offered to purchase my holdings and the sale would have been made years ago. End of that legal problem for me with ARC.
As I stated so many times, I am/was not the party that was delaying the contract and thereby preventing the others from the enjoyment of their holdings, it was ARC!
Oh! In regards to the Ritchie contract: The corporation lawyers are a bit "forgetful'. They send the unsolicited contract which told me to contact them if there was questions. They do not reply for months, and then only after I received notice from the court did I receive any communications. The amendments to that contract were made and I received a new contract. with the amendments on a separate piece of paper. But no file copy for my records!
What lawyer forgets to send the file copy with the contract??? One that if I had returned the sign contract would "somehow" loose the separate page with the agreed amendments.
As I have mentioned on this site before, the lawyer and I were talking over the phone and he asked why 264 people had signed the contract so why won't I? Answer: They are idiots! Think about it...
RCR 4/22/2017