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Final Orders were granted approving all three of the proposed settlements in the royalty owner class action lawsuits brought against TEP Rocky Mountain LLC. A class action is a type of lawsuit where one person (or a few people) sue on behalf of a larger group of people who have similar legal issues. This way, everyone in the group can potentially get compensation without each person having to file their own separate lawsuit and bear the associated costs and risks. Class actions are used when many people are affected by the same problem, so the court can handle it all at once instead of repeating the same case over and over.
Nate Keever, a partner here at Dufford Waldeck, is the lead trial attorney for the royalty owners in these actions. The lawsuits alleged that TEP underpaid royalty payments for natural gas wells in Garfield County, Colorado. Specifically, the royalty owners alleged that, at various times from August 1, 2011, through December 31, 2024, TEP paid royalties based on prices that were too low and took improper deductions for certain costs. In each case, TEP agreed to fund settlement accounts to account for its actions.
Details of the cases and about how the money from each will be divided among class members are explained in the Settlement Agreements and other documents, which are available to view on our website https://www.dwmk.com/tep-class-action. The website also includes spreadsheets where you can look up the amount you have been allocated—listed by TEP Owner Number. Distributions in the first two cases are being made now, and distributions for the third action will begin in February 2026.
This has been a long fight for Dufford Waldeck and its co-counsel, but the great result for the royalty owners makes it worthwhile.
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