Massey Energy has bought two of the five seats on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, and somehow holds sway over a third seat. That investment looks to be unraveling faster than the U.S. economy.
Last November, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals reversed a $50 million verdict against A.T. Massey Coal Company by Hugh Caperton and his company, Harmon Mining. With interest, the judgment has now grown to over $75 million.
Justices Benjamin, Davis and Elliott “Spike” Maynard voted to set aside the verdict on ridiculous legal grounds, even though the evidence of wrongdoing by Massey clearly supported a verdict higher than the one returned by the jury. The Court said:
The facts of this case demonstrate that Massey’s conduct warranted the type of judgment rendered in this case. However, no matter how sympathetic the facts are, or how egregious the conduct, we simply cannot compromise the law in order to reach a result that clearly appears to be justified.
Justices Albright and Starcher dissented.
In the last two weeks, it was discovered that Spike Maynard had been vacationing on the French Riviera with the CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship. Vacationing together while the Caperton verdict was being appealed. Blankenship and Maynard apparently tried to conceal this trip, telling people to lie and say the trip never happened. They also ordered any evidence of the trip — like photos — to be destroyed.
So it was quite a surprise when the photos of Spike and Don magically appeared in the press last week. Looks like someone didn’t get the memo to destroy all the evidence.
Maynard originally tried to act like the photos were no big deal, and promised he would produce documentation showing (a) he paid for his share of the trip, and (b) it was purely a coincidence that Maynard and Blankenship ended up together in the casinos of Monte Carlo for three straight days in July 2006.
By last Friday, Maynard hadn’t produced any evidence that he paid for his share of the trip (probably because it either never existed, or he destroyed it along with his copy of the photos). So he disqualified himself from the case.
The plaintiffs asked Justice Benjamin to disqualify himself too, because he received $3.5 million in campaign money from Don Blankenship. Benjamin said that amount of money isn’t enough for a reasonable person to find an appearance of impropriety, so he refused to step down from the case.
Meanwhile, documents appeared showing Justice Starcher had honorably stepped down from asbestos cases in 1996 because he received $36,500 in campaign money from asbestos plaintiffs’ lawyers. Coincidentally, the 1996 motion asking Starcher to disqualify himself was filed by Charles McElwee — a lawyer who is now a law clerk to Justice Benjamin!
The Supreme Court rotates chief justices each year, in order of seniority. The chief justice is mostly an administrative figurehead. In 2008, Justice Larry Starcher was in line to be the Chief Justice. In 2009, Joe Albright is supposed to be the chief.
The Big Three on the Court — Maynard, Davis, and Benjamin — voted last year to ignore seniority rotation rules and make Spike Maynard the chief justice for 2008, and Brent Benjamin chief in 2009. Why this happened should now be apparent.
When a justice is disqualifed, the chief justice is the person who appoints another judge to replace the disqualified justice. That means the chief justice can pick replacement judges who are likely to support the chief’s view of a case.
So Brent Benjamin picked a circuit judge he thought would blindly vote his way, and vote to uphold the November opinion setting aside the verdict against Massey.
Unfortunately, Circuit Judge Don Cookman has a little too much integrity and somehow compelled Justices Davis and Benjamin to agree to rehear the case.
Thursday, the West Virginia Supreme Court voted unanimously to rehear arguments as to whether or not the jury’s verdict should be upheld or set aside.
Arguments in the case are set for March 12th.
Tags: Corruption
January 25, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Supreme Court won’t release the “sealed” girly photos since they’re the subject of a motion. Wanna bet the photos don’t get released? Seems like me and other Dum Dums should be able to reach their own conclusions before we cast our ballots!
January 25, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Here’s the connection to scrutinize between Spikeblankenship and Benjamindavis if you’re Caperton’s lawyers or some other interested party. The Administrator, Canterbury, if you read Justice Starcher’s letter, is and has been well aware of what has been taking place prior to the public disclosures. Canterbury was likely keeping Benjamindavis and Spikeblankenship well informed that certain Court officials and employees knew something was up. They kept it among themselves—a passive cover up one might argue. Caperton’s boys need to look at Canterbury’s conduct in his communications with certain justices re what they knew and when they knew about spike, and from there—benjamin and davis are disqualified.