The industry and private residents settled the class action suit for $380 million in Roane County Circuit Court in late November.

The case had been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which at the time of the settlement had not decided if it would hear Tawney, et al. v. Columbia Natural Resources, et al.

Lawyers will receive one-third of the settlement for fees, and an additional $1.4 million for costs.

Originally, the gas industry companies wanted the state Supreme Court of Appeals to overturn a $270 million Roane County Circuit Court ruling that changed how natural gas contracts read; the state Supreme Court declined to review the case after it initially made an underlying decision and sent the case back to the circuit court level.

"Essentially what we were calling to the U.S. Supreme Court's attention, is our (state) Supreme Court, in its underlying decision, completely changed oil and gas lease law as it was known in West Virginia and throughout the United States," said Richard Gottlieb, an attorney from Lewis Glasser Casey & Rollins, who has represented the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association.

WVONGA was one of the groups that filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case.

The brief's two main arguments were that the previous royalty computation was usual and recognized practice and that the outcome of the ruling was unforeseeable, drastic change in the law.

Gottlieb said the court gave certain lease terms meaning totally at odds with the industry understanding.

In short, the contract lawsuit alleged the company failed to pay enough royalties. Previously it was understood that both those leasing natural gas rights and the company shared in costs and benefits from higher post-production prices.

Under the court's ruling, those leasing gas rights to companies still benefit from post-production prices but pay none of the production costs. The about-face in the understanding of these leases, Gottlieb said, has led to a number of copy-cat lawsuits.

The original $270 million ruling was delivered against Columbia Gas, now owned by Chesapeake. Damages in the case go back to 1993, Gottlieb said. Since that time, the brief states, other statewide natural gas companies have been sued in multi-million-dollar lawsuits.

The association serves the state's entire oil and gas industry, which comprises about 20,000 oil and gas wells and employs thousands of people.

Gottlieb said the case has had far-reaching consequences already, as Chesapeake -- one of the two largest producers of natural gas in the state -- decided not to locate its headquarters in West Virginia after the decision.