W.Va. justice removes himself from case after photos connected him to controversial coal man

Elliott "Spike" Maynard, the chief justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court, has removed himself from a case involving Massey Energy Co. after photos showed him alongside the company's top executive, Don Blankenship, during a Monaco vacation, reports Lawrence Messina of The Associated Press. (One of those photos is at left, with Blankenship in sunglasses.)

"Maynard helped form a 3-2 majority in November that overturned a multimillion-dollar judgment against Richmond, Va.-based Massey that another company, Harman Mining, and its president, Hugh Caperton, had won in a contract dispute," Messina writes. "Caperton had asked Maynard to step down from the case before the high court reconsiders that ruling. With interest, the damages are worth $76.3 million." (Read more)

Paul J. Nyden of The Charleston Gazette first reported on the photos after Caperton filed them with the state Supreme Court on Monday. The AP ran a story earlier this week on how the photo flap highlighted the small-town nature of the state, saying, "In a state of about 1.8 million people, those in West Virginia’s universe of officeholders, bureaucrats and business leaders often joke about a single degree of separation between them."

In 2004, Blankenship bankrolled a multi-million dollar campaign that replaced a Democratic justice of the Supreme Court with a Republican, and he has said he plans to do likewise this year. However, his effort to finance a Republican takeover of the state legislature in 2006 failed. For other news on Massey, see item below.