West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman has issued another stinging dissent in the Massey Energy-Harman Mining-Brent Benjamin-Spike Maynard affair, this time citing an “extensive pattern of fraudulent conduct” by Massey in its dealings with Harman Mining.
My buddy Paul Nyden has the full story in today’s Gazette. Justice Workman’s decision is available online here, and the majority opinion is available here. This seems to sum up with Justice Workman had to say:
In enunciating eight major new points of law and applying them retroactively (with no opportunity for the parties to make a record under the new law), scrapping mountains of prior precedent that give deference to the finders of fact below (and instead making new factual determinations at this level), rewarding the defendant (whose conduct is seemingly recognized by all as reprehensible) the spoils of its fraudulent acts, and then characterizing the result as “equitable,” the majority has turned West Virginia jurisprudence on its ear.
Justice Workman previously dissented in a related Freedom of Information Act case in which the majority of the court ruled to conceal from the public e-mail messages between Massey President Don Blankenship and then-Justice Spike Maynard.
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Picture of Justice Workman is a little dated don’t you think?
Sorry to correct you, but no, this picture is not at all dated. They took the photo earlier this year. If you are looking for a picture that is less dated please grab your polaroid.