Mar 12, 2020 5 min read

In 2008, Michael Kopko was negotiating with Range Resources representatives about leasing oil and gas rights to his property in Canton Township.

Kopko signed a lease agreement with Range May 19, 2008, for the rights to land he owns near his house on Malone Ridge Road. He allegedly made the agreement with the input of an attorney, Jeff Kramer, who’d represented him until shortly beforehand in an unrelated case involving the city of Washington.

By the time of the agreement, Kramer had started working for the natural gas company.

Kopko, a former Canton supervisor, is now suing Range in Washington County Court of Common Pleas in a bid to cancel that lease and another one he signed about five years later. In a complaint filed Friday, he also requested “such other relief” a judge deems necessary if he prevails.

The case was initiated in August, but Kopko and his attorney had not detailed the allegations underlying the legal dispute until last week’s filing.

Kopko’s current attorney, Brian Sommer of Dornish Law Offices in Wexford, contends Kramer’s alleged breach of legal ethics means Kopko signed the leases under fraudulent pretenses.

“At no point throughout his post City of Washington v. Kopko dealings with Kopko, did Kramer ever inform Kopko that his representation of Range was adverse to Kopko,” Sommer wrote in the complaint. “Additionally, at no point did Kramer inform Kopko that of (sic) the apparent conflict of interest arising from Kramer’s negotiating lease terms on Range’s behalf so soon after having been Kopko’s counsel. Additionally, at no point did Range silo Kramer off and assign Kopko’s negotiations and lease to another Range representative.”

Kramer didn’t respond to an inquiry about the allegations in the complaint.

In an emailed statement, the company didn’t address the allegations directly, but said Kopko has received the royalties for wells on his land. The company added he was allowed to keep a bonus the company found out it had overpaid because Kopko doesn’t own the full rights to his land.

“We haven’t yet had the opportunity to review the lawsuit in detail, however Mr. Kopko was satisfied with the terms of his lease with Range until a title examination showed that he did not own all of the oil and gas rights under his property,” it reads. “This appears to be an attempt by Mr. Kopko to retroactively negotiate a legal agreement he made with Range 12 years ago.”

Range currently has a Marcellus shale well pad on Kopko’s 117-acre property, which is down the road from his 14-acre homestead.

When Kramer represented Kopko in the city case, he was a member of Julian Law Firm. The Washington firm isn’t accused of wrongdoing in the lawsuit.

Late in April 2008, Kramer notified Kopko in a letter he was leaving that firm to take unspecified other employment.

Six days later, he called Kopko to say his new position was at Range. In the same conversation, he offered Kopko a lease whose terms included 12.5% of production and a payment of $1,500 per acre per year for 10 years – a sum and timeline he allegedly claimed were twice what was typical for the company.

In fact, the rate of 12.5% is the statutory minimum for royalties in Pennsylvania.

The lawsuit says Kopko trusted his former attorney, who supposedly called himself the best title search attorney in the county. Kramer never recommended Kopko consult another attorney. They allegedly kept dealing with each other up to the signing of Kopko’s first lease. That wasn’t the end of their relationship.

Soon afterward, Kramer allegedly fielded a question from Kopko, who just received another offer from a different land agent for Range. Among the proposed terms of that offer were 15% royalties and twice as much money per acre, so Kopko wanted to know if he could change the terms of his lease or cancel it to take a better one.

Kramer purportedly told him there was no way to do either. Years later, the lawsuit adds, Kopko learned he actually had 90 days to cancel the lease.

The men’s next encounter was in November 2013, when Kopko visited Range’s offices in Southpointe to help persuade his neighbors to sign leases.

Kramer allegedly told Kopko he would have to sign a second lease regarding oil and gas rights for his homestead, despite having previously said Kopko didn’t have rights to that land.

Additionally, Kopko later found out his neighbors’ leases with the company provided for 16 to 17% of production and payments of $2,500 an acre.

The lawsuit says the alleged misrepresentations by Kramer and Range’s failure to correct them are sufficient grounds for a court to rescind Kopko’s agreements with the company.

“Kramer’s utilization of Kopko’s trust in him, arising from his recent service as Kopko’s counsel in order to induce Kopko to enter the leases, was fraudulent,” Sommer wrote.