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Suffering from a bit of insomnia tonight, I decided to get my obligatory round of news-reading out of the way a little early. So I'm working my way through the various sites I've bookmarked, and I come to the New York Times.
In what might be considered electronic "above-the-fold" story placement, this headline caught my eye: "Motion Ties W. Virginia Justice to Coal Executive."
I am not nearly as versed in the politics of West Virginia's coal industry as just about everybody here on this site, but somehow, in my heart, I knew this would be about Don Blankenship and Massey Energy.
It turns out that in the summer of 2006, Massey Energy CEO Blankenship and Elliott Maynard - currently the chief justice of the WV Supreme Court of Appeals - vacationed together in Monte Carlo. And there are pictures to prove it.
What makes it particularly damning is that Massey had an appeal of a $50 million lawsuit pending before the court. Which in 2007 was settled in Massey's favor, by a 3-2 vote. Care to guess which side Maynard came down on?
The lawsuit had been brought by Massey competitors:
The case itself was brought by mining companies that said they had been driven out of business by fraud committed by Massey. "Make no mistake," Justice Larry V. Starcher wrote in his dissent in November. "A West Virginia jury heard from all the witnesses for both sides, and decided that Mr. Don Blankenship directed an illegal scheme to break" the companies.
The companies suing Massey decided not to let the rejection of of their lawsuit die after Maynard's shameful vote. Instead, they've filed a motion calling for his disqualification:
Hugh M. Caperton, the owner and president of Harman Development Corporation, a mining company that Massey was said to have driven out of business, said he was angry when he learned about the photographs, and doubly so when he saw the dates time-stamped on them.
"That's when all the miners take their families to Myrtle Beach and Pigeon Forge, if they can, if they can afford to," Mr. Caperton said, referring to vacation spots in South Carolina and Tennessee. "They go camping at the river while the chief justice and Don Blankenship are smiling and frolicking on the French Riviera."
The Massey spokesman said it was just coincidence the two men were vacationing in the same place, and why should it matter if for three days they ate meals and frolicked together in the French sun? (Elliott declined to be interviewed for the story.)
I don't know that disqualification on this case is sufficient. So - what wouldit take to remove a Supreme Court justice from office in this state? Can it be done?
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