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Massey Energy Gets $50 Million Jury Verdict Overturned Again

November 17, 2009

Massey Energy Co., the fifth-largest U.S. coal company, succeeded for a second time in getting a $50 million jury verdict thrown out five months after the U.S. Supreme Court said West Virginia’s highest court had to re-hear the case because one justice should have recused himself.

 

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia again reversed the jury verdict and dismissed the case in an opinion filed yesterday. In November 2007, it first overturned the award won by a competing coal supplier. In June this year, the U.S. Supreme Court said West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin shouldn’t have taken part in two 3-2 decisions that blocked the award. Massey’s chairman, Donald Blankenship, had spent $3 million to get Benjamin elected.

 

The jury concluded that Massey, based in Richmond, Virginia, drove Harman Mining Corp. out of business by acquiring the sole buyer of Harman’s coal and then sharply reducing purchases. It awarded the money to Harman and owner Hugh Caperton. In its ruling yesterday, the West Virginia high court reiterated its earlier finding that Virginia courts were the proper forum for the dispute.

 

Read Article: Bloomberg

 

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