Widow says coal company to blame for husband's death

MORGANTOWN - The widow of a coal miner from Marion County has filed a suit against the coal company that employed her husband.

Linda Corley, widow of Rymer Lee Corley, filed a suit April 9 in Monongalia Circuit Court against Eastern Associated Coal Corp. Rymer Corley died of a heart attack while working in the Federal No. 2 mine at Miracle Run.

On April 7, 2005, Corley was working as a face man/utility man at the mine, pulling water lines and cable. According to the suit, Corley reported he could not get his breath and had chest pains.

The suit says co-workers attempted to locate oxygen, but oxygen was not available. The unit in the first responder kit was available, but the regulator to the canister had been removed, the suit says.

Corley was transported to the bottom of the cage area, where he was met with a supplemental oxygen supply and he was then taken up to the surface.

"It is estimated that approximately forty minutes transpired from the time Corley suffered his initial episode or attack until the time that he received supplemental oxygen," the suit says.

Linda Corley claims the coal company had a duty to provide supplemental oxygen in strategic places throughout the mine. However, the company was negligence in supplying the oxygen, which was a contributing cause of Rymer Corley's death, the suit says.

Linda Corley, through her attorney, C. Patrick Carrick, seeks full and fair compensation for the death of her husband, under the wrongful death law in the state of West Virginia.

Monongalia Circuit Court case number 07-C-251