Landowners seek to sue state

2/27/2013 (Updated 9:50:57 PM)

A landowner's group is getting ready to sue New York over it's refusal to permit the drilling process.

The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York announced that it is looking for plaintiffs in a suit against the state. The group is claiming that the state's failure to grant fracking permits has deprived landowners of all economically viable uses of their land.

An attorney for the group is looking for property owners who own only the sub-surface rights to the land.

"For those landowners who purchase the subsurface what else can they do with it other than develop the minerals? And if the state is going to hold it up the way it has been then their rights have been taken away," Scott Kurkoski, the group's attorney said.

He added that he expects the process of vetting for plaintiffs to last a couple of weeks.