The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld the decision of a Wyoming County jury that a coal company operated by Gov.
The families who showed their water was contaminated by lead and arsenic, but couldn’t prove that mining operations by Dynamic Energy Inc. and Mechel Bluestone Inc. caused it, had appealed the ruling from a Wyoming circuit judge that denied their motion to set aside the jury’s verdict, according to the ruling the court handed down Thursday.
The court also issued a ruling on a second appeal from the same case and remanded the decision on a preliminary injunction back to Wyoming County, where a circuit judge will have to rule on how to proceed after the coal company violated the court’s order, according to the ruling written by Justice Robin Davis.
The individual suits were consolidated into one case, which led to a three-week trial in April and May 2016.
Following the verdict, the families attorneys filed a motion to set aside the verdicts and have a new trial, claiming there had been jury interference and witness intimidation and that an alternate juror, who ended up being seated on the jury, had a relationship with a corporate representative of the coal company that should have disqualified him from service.
Dynamic Energy’s attorneys said the company didn’t procure or request the presence of the UMWA members, and their presence didn’t interfere with the families’ right to a fair trial.
The court supported Dynamic’s argument, saying the families’ attorneys didn’t show any evidence that the company solicited the presence of the union members or that their presence damaged the families’ rights.
The families’ attorneys also said a former Dynamic employee was set to testify that he illegally buried coal slurry outside of the areas designated by the company’s mining permits that the attorneys said contributed to the water contamination.
“We conclude that the plaintiffs are responsible for the error of which they now complain,” Davis said.
Finally, the families’ attorneys said the evidence in the case clearly showed the company was liable for the water contamination.