Massey Energy Co. and its president, Don Blankenship, settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the widows of two coal miners killed in a mine fire. The settlement was reached after four days of a trial in which many of the big coal company's mine managers invoked their Fifth Amendment rights not to answer questions. Details of the settlement were not released.
"Federal investigators cited Massey for mining ventilation walls that inspectors said were a major cause of the deaths," writes Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette. "The missing ventilation walls, called stoppings, allow smoke from the conveyor belt fire to enter the mine's primary escape tunnel. During the fire, a crew of workers ran into smoke in their escape tunnel and had to find another way out." Two got lost and died. In addition to the lawsuit, "Massey was already facing proposed fines of $1.5 million for 25 major violations cited by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration."(Read more)
In the days leading up to the settlement of this case Massey Energy pushed its insurer to pay out $20 million for the settlement. Its Aracome subsidary alleged that the families of the dead miners "had offered to settle their case for an amount 'within the applicable limits of coverage' under the company's $20 million stopgap policy," Ward writes. "Aracoma lawyers said that Aracoma had agreed to pay its $5 million deductible portion of the settlement."(Read more)
No comments:
Post a Comment