CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals issued an opinion last week ruling that Dynamic Energy and Mechel Bluestone, which are owned by Gov. Jim Justice, did not contaminate the well water in Wyoming County belonging to 16 families.
Justice Robin Jean Davis authored the majority opinion, which was filed on April 5.
“On appeal to this Court, the Plaintiffs raise the following assignments of error: (1) jury interference and witness intimidation; (2) disqualifying relationship between seated alternate juror and corporate representative of defendant coal company; and (3) defense verdicts against the weight of the evidence,” the opinion states. “Upon a review of the parties’ arguments, the record designated for appellate consideration, and the pertinent authorities, we find no error and, therefore, affirm the circuit court’s ruling.”
The families alleged their well water was contaminated by lead and arsenic, but they were not able to prove that Dynamic and Mechel were the cause of the contamination. They appealed the Wyoming Circuit Court judge’s 2016 ruling this past January to the Supreme Court.
The court also issued a ruling on a second appeal involving the same case and remanded the decision on a preliminary injunction back to Wyoming Circuit Court, for a judge to rule on how to proceed after Dynamic Energy violated the court’s order.
“On appeal to this Court, Dynamic Energy contends that the circuit court erred because the preliminary injunction should have been dissolved,” Davis wrote. “Upon a review of the parties’ arguments, the record designated for appellate consideration, and the pertinent authorities, we agree that the subject preliminary injunction should have been dissolved. Accordingly, we reverse the circuit court’s ruling.”
However, Davis wrote, during oral argument of these matters, the parties informed the court that Dynamic Energy, of its own volition, stopped providing the replacement water required by the preliminary injunction in direct violation of the circuit court’s commands.
“Therefore, we remand this case to the circuit court for the parties to raise the issue of Dynamic Energy’s noncompliance with the circuit court’s preliminary injunction during the pendency of the instant appeal,” the opinion states.
In 2016, a jury found that Dynamic was not responsible for the pollutants the families claimed they found in Clear Fork along Cedar Creek Road.
The families claimed Dynamic violated state law and damaged wells, however, during the 2016 trial, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection testified that there was no link between the wells and a nearby surface mine.
The suit was filed in Wyoming Circuit Court in 2014. On May 16, 2016, the plaintiffs filed a motion to set aside verdicts and for a new trial, which was denied on Jan. 20, 2017.
W.Va. Supreme Court of Appeals case number: 17-0168, 17-0169
