EKB News

WEST VIRGINIA....

Hugh Caperton and his companies, Harman Development Corp., Harman Mining Corp. and Sovereign Coal Sales, filed action this week in Buchanan County, Virginia against A.T. Massey Coal Co., now known as Massey Energy. In August 2002, a Boone County jury awarded Caperton and his companies $50 million in a case that alleged Massey’s “interference with contractual relations, fraudulent misrepresentation and fraudulent concealment.” The Boone County verdict was worth about $85 million, with interest, when the West Virginia Supreme Court dismissed it for the third time in November 2009. The lawsuit seeks $56.4 million in damages, including $11.5 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages for Caperton, along with $33 million in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages for the three coal companies. Shane Harvey, Massey Energy vice president and general counsel, says Caperton’s claims have been rejected by the West Virginia court system multiple times, and Massey hopes his attorneys have not decided to waste more resources by seeking to bring a meritless case back to the Virginia court system.