PPL battles homeowners over drilling royalty checks on forgotten land

“The families of several property owners have used the forgotten rail bed for generations. But an heir to the old Northern Electric trolley line was eventually found: PPL Electric Corp.

PPL officials didn’t even know the company owned the old rail line that once carried passengers from Scranton to Tiffany Corners, just west of Montrose. Cabot Oil & Gas Inc. untangled the mystery of the rail right-of-way last year as it sought to sign mineral leases with landowners. A savvy title searcher had a hunch that the missing link in the ownership chain may have been misfiled in Wyoming County. It was.

PPL’s ownership of the former Northern Electric is clear, but whether it can convince a court to affirm that ownership over competing claims is not as clear.

News broke when mineral rights owners looked over changes to one of the most important financial documents they will ever receive: The Pooling and Unitization Declaration which spells out the number of acres they and others own and the share of royalties they will receive. Those who thought they owned a piece of the former Northern Electric land have seen their piece of the land and royalty pie shrink.”

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