(April 3, 2024, 2:38 PM EDT) -- CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia has dismissed with prejudice a breach of contract claim by landowners who have sued hydraulic fracturing companies asserting several causes of action related to royalty interests in certain parcels of land used for fracking. The judge held that the landowners did not own the royalty interests in question because they had been assigned to one of the fracking companies in a conveyance of rights transaction dating back to 1996....