CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that a lawsuit against the Chemours Company was rightfully dismissed because the claims had already been adjudicated in a previous lawsuit.
"We have analyzed the facts and the parties’ legal arguments under our considerable body of case law, which stretches back more than a century, and upon careful review of the briefs, oral arguments, and the appendix record, we affirm the judgment of the circuit court," the majority opinion states.
Justice Bill Wooton authored the majority opinion.
Kimberly A. Baker alleged in a complaint against Chemours, Shawn Busch and Kevin Crislip in Wood Circuit Court alleging failure to accommodate, gender discrimination, a hostile work environent and retaliation.
The circuit court dismissed the complaint saying that Baker's claims had already been adjudicated in a previous lawsuit, but Baker claims the these claims are different from the previous ones.
Baker filed a lawsuit in 2017 against Chemours alleging a hostile work environment and gender harassment, as well as retaliation and that complaint was amended to include Jay Starcher and Busch. In 2019, she filed the second lawsuit alleging the same claims while the first lawsuit was still pending.
Wooton writes that the new allegations all occurred while the initial litigation was pending and there was sufficient time to develop the new allegations prior to the close of discovery and the scheduled trial date in the first case, so it was "incumbent upon petitioner to timely move the court for relief, whether by seeking leave to amend the complaint or otherwise."
"Had she done so and the circuit court granted the motion, then the issues presented here would be moot,"Wooton wrote. "Had she done so and the circuit court denied the motion, then she could have raised this as an issue on appeal. What the petitioner cannot do is to litigate this issue in Baker II after failing to raise it on appeal in Baker I."
The court affirmed the circuit court's decision to dismiss the case.
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case number: 19-0906
