A federal judge has signed off on a consent decree granting a Texas-based company's settlement with a southern Kentucky oil and gas company that will pay the energy giant $3.5 million to end long-running litigation over a dispute about royalties.
Under terms of the agreement approved Monday, Resource Energy Technologies, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, and its owner John F. Charles of Bardstown, Kentucky, and the estate of Robert E. Thorpe Jr., will drop all legal claims against Atmos Energy.
Atmos sued Resource Energy Technologies in 2011, alleging misrepresentation and unjust enrichment by Resource Energy and its owners.
That suit came after a jury in Edmonson County awarded the landowners and Resource Energy $24.7 million a year earlier. A state appeals court has since overturned that verdict.