Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Statewide WV | West Virginia
Federal Judge Approves EQT $53.5M WV Class Action Settlement
In February MDN brought you the news that EQT had settled a class action lawsuit in West Virginia with landowners and rights owners ending EQT’s practice of post-production deductions from royalty checks (see EQT Settles WV Class Action Royalty Lawsuit for $53.5M). EQT agreed to pay $53.5 million into a settlement fund that will disburse payments to each individual litigant–unless they elect to opt out of the settlement and continue on with a private lawsuit against EQT. Courts take a looooooooooong time to do anything, including putting a stamp of approval on this settlement.
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In February, EQT filed lawsuits in both Pennsylvania and federal courts against two former employees it had fired, claiming the employees, before they were fired, had systematically copied confidential information from company computers and took it with them when they left (see 
As of today Toby Rice has been on the job as EQT’s CEO for one week. According to an interview he granted the Pittsburgh Business Times, so far there have been “no major surprises.” Rice has begun meeting with all 800 EQT employees–some in groups via electronic town hall, others individually face-to-face. It appears his main focus has been to form and add people to an “Evolution Committee”–charged with executing Rice’s previously laid out 100-day plan. Toby also wants to EQT to be a “fun place to work.” He says right now, it’s not.
The clock is now ticking for Toby and Derek Rice who have made big promises about the future of the company they just seized control of (EQT). The Rice boys have a “100 day plan” they have already begun to implement. During the proxy fight to control EQT’s board, and ultimately its management team, Toby Rice threw some sharp barbs including talk that EQT’s existing management was not up to the task. The Rice boys said so, their board nominees said so, heck, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) said so too. There will be change (i.e. personnel change) at the “operational level” said ISS. But apparently that change only extended to two people: EQT’s (now former) CEO Robert McNally, and EQT’s (now former) top attorney, Jonathan Lushko–who were shown the door.
Do you consider it “free speech” to assemble a mob outside someone’s home at 2 o’clock in the morning and start hollering and shouting, beating a drum, thereby threatening and menacing an innocent family in that home? We sure don’t call it free speech. We call it gang activity–or maybe even terrorism. When the people inside the home feel threatened, what else can you call it? That’s what happened to EQT’s then-CEO Rob McNally and his family in the early morning hours of July 10, the day he lost his job following EQT’s annual meeting. Those outside doing the terrorizing were radical anti-fossil fuel nutters–some from out of state. Crazies. They should have been arrested. They weren’t.
Last July a group of 100+ southwestern Pennsylvania landowners sued EQT for failure to pay them rental fees for storing natural gas under their properties (see 
In another MDN exclusive, last Friday LOLA Energy filed a lawsuit in Greene County, PA against EQT for allegedly drilling shale wells under property EQT formerly leased, property for which the leases had lapsed and were subsequently scooped up by LOLA Energy (see 
A week ago we brought you the news that the country’s top two shareholder advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis & Co., are each supporting opposing sides in the EQT proxy war (see 
Both the Rice brothers and EQT are issuing press releases just about every day now in their battle to wrest (or keep) control of EQT. Yesterday the latest round of letters to shareholders, circulated via press release for the world to see, were issued. First up was a letter early yesterday from John F. McCartney, a Rice Team board nominee, praising Toby Rice (potential new EQT CEO). Later in the day EQT issued a letter chronicling what we would call an EQT listening tour. Although both letters tell shareholders to not vote for the other side’s board picks, noticeably absent from this latest round was the acrimony and personal attacks that have been present in recent letters.