PARKERSBURG — A lawsuit filed in Wood County Circuit Court alleges United Bank induced the (Charleston) Daily Gazette Co. to sell the rights to the Charleston Daily Mail website in violation of contractual obligations.

In the suit MediaNews Group Inc. and Charleston Publishing Co. are seeking to recover $1 million the bank reportedly received from the sale of dailymail.com to the London (UK) Daily Mail.

MediaNews acquired the Charleston Daily Mail in 1998 and 50 percent of the Charleston Newspapers joint operating agreement. In 2004 MediaNews sold its interest to the Daily Gazette Co.

Under the agreement, upon termination of the partnership, it was to distribute to Charleston Publishing Co. all intellectual property and the domain name, the suit states.

“On April 10, 2013, Norman (Trip) Shumate III, on behalf of Daily Gazette, informed Larry Salyers of United Bank that he had agreed to sell the dailymail.com domain name to the owner of the London (UK) Daily Mail for $1.5 million,” the complaint states. Shumate stated he was investigating if consent was necessary from MediaNews Group or the Department of Justice.

On April 16, 2013, the Daily Gazette Co. caused the web site registration to be moved to the joint venture. In May Shumate sought consent from Charleston Publishing to sell the domain name, but Charleston Publishing responded it was entitled to the return of the name and did not consent to a sale, the suit stated.

On July 3, 2013, Shumate sent Salyers a marked-up version of a Certificate Regarding Loan Prepayment representing both the Department of Justice and MediaNews Group had consented to the sale. The draft represented no consents were required other than the Department of Justice, MediaNews Group and United Bank.

“The edited version that Shumate returned to Salyers deleted the reference to the consent from MediaNews Group,” the complaint stated. Shumate’s cover email to Salyers explained MediaNews Group waffled on consent to the sale so it was not included, the suit stated.

In November 2013 the domain name was sold by the Daily Gazette Co. without the consent or knowledge of Charleston Publishing, $1 million was paid to United Bank and the rest was used by the newspapers and to pay a past-due management fee, the suit stated.