Legal News

A ?Little Tense?: Will W. Va. Supreme Court Mess Go to SCOTUS?

By Dan Slater

Finally, the biggest judicial ethics story of the year is heading to the High Court. Well, maybe.

It’s been nearly 12 months since West Virginia’s supreme court overturned a $50 million jury verdict against Massey Energy. Shortly thereafter, the court agreed to rehear the case after photos surfaced showing one of the judges, former Chief Justice Elliott “Spike” Maynard, and Massey’s CEO, Don Blankenship, vacationing together in France. But in May, the justices, in a 3-2 decision, reaffirmed their November ruling in favor of Massey. Meanwhile, there was a string of recusals, refusals to recuse and apparent finger-pointing at the court.

Justice Larry Starcher recently told the NYT that the Massey cases have strained personal relationships on the court. “Some of the justices still barely speak to each other,” he said. “It’s a little tense.” (Maynard, the former chief justice, lost an election in May.)

Now the Supreme Court is likely to announce, as early as this week, whether it will hear the first of three cases over West Virginia’s allegedly broken judicial system. That case is about whether the due process clause required Justice Brent D. Benjamin — who received more than $3 million in election funds from Massey CEO Blankenship but refused to disqualify himself from cases involving Massey — to step aside.

Benjamin didn’t respond to the NYT’s request for comment. Massey has reportedly filed a brief asking the Court not to hear the case, and urging it against adopting a “‘looks bad’ due process test.” The plaintiffs — mining companies that say they were driven out of business by fraud committed by Massey — are repped by Gibson Dunn’s Ted Olson.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 13, 2008 (boomark / email).