The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has ruled that five class actions in which plaintiffs allege that they have been deprived of royalty payments for the production of coalbed methane gas should not have been certified.
The appeals court on Aug. 19 found that U.S. District Court James Jones of the Western District of Virginia abused his discretion by not analyzing whether there would be any difficulty in identifying class members, which could make the class actions too onerous to prosecute. Identifying ownership of property interests can be complicated, Circuit Court Judge Albert Diaz, writing for the court, said.
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