LITTLE ROCK — Three landowners are suing Cleburne County Circuit Clerk Karen Giles, claiming that deputy clerks in her office falsely notarized oil and gas leases in the county.
In the lawsuit, Maurice Lipsey, William Cox and Connie Cox state that they were not present when their leases were notarized by deputy clerks Wanda Jensen and Heather Smith.
The lawsuit was filed in Cleburne County Circuit Court, and a hearing has been set for June 19 before Judge Tim Weaver.
The plaintiffs want the clerk’s office to “purge any and all oil and gas leases which contain ... false notarial acknowledgments.” They are also seeking class status for “hundreds” of Cleburne County residents who own oil and gas leases or whose property has mineral rights that are subject to lease.
“They want to see that the records are cleaned up and any falsely notarized leases get purged,” said Tim Holton, a lawyer from Memphis, who is representing the three landowners.
According to the lawsuit, Lipsey, who owns about 60 acres, entered into an oil and gas lease in 2005 with SEECO Inc., a subsidiary of Southwestern Energy. When he went to renegotiate the lease agreement with Southwestern Energy in 2010, he was given a copy of the lease that he signed on April 12, 2005.
That lease was recorded and filed at the Cleburne County circuit clerk’s office on July 6, 2005, and contained a notary document signed by Smith stating that Lipsey had been present for the notarization. Holton said Lipsey never appeared in front of Smith for the signing of that lease. The lawsuit states that Smith told Lipsey that a person would carry in stacks of oil and gas leases on a weekly basis for her to notarize.
“They told him [Lipsey] that they have been doing that routinely as a favor for those ‘land-men’ that are getting the gas lease,” Holton said.
The same thing happened to the Coxes when they received a copy of their lease in 2010. The oil and gas lease agreement they had with Mid-Continent Title & Lease Consultants Inc., in 2003 had been recorded with the clerk’s office and notarized by Jensen without their consent, according to the lawsuit.
Smith and Giles declined to comment on the lawsuit. Southwestern Energy declined to comment because of the pending litigation.
Holton said Giles is being sued because she is responsible for the deputy clerks and what is filed in the clerk’s office.
The lawsuit seeks for Giles to inspect and verify every oil and gas lease received for recording and filing to determine if the notarization is correct. It also asks for the plaintiffs’ costs and attorney fees to be paid, as well as all other relief, both general and specific, to which they may be entitled.
“They aren’t going to get anything out of the lawsuit,” Holton said of the three landowners. “They just think that it is wrong for residents of Cleburne County that these clerks were doing this.”
Holton said Lipsey has already renegotiated his lease with Southwestern Energy.
“All we are asking is that the records be legally retained,” he said. “The reason notarization is important is to make sure that the person who signs the document is exactly who they are.”
Business, Pages 27 on 05/24/2012