Lawsuit Over Coal Mining Fatalities

In January 2006, twelve coal miners were killed by a methane explosion in West Virginia. Seventeen days later, two more miners died in a conveyor belt fire at another West Virginia coal mine.

And now a lawsuit has been filed. Well, a lawsuit can be a necessary evil. Mining executives have a tremendous amount of political clout compared to their employees. Sometimes a court of law is the only place where these David and Goliath situations can be resolved fairly.

Hopefully when the court — wait, what the…oh. [sigh]... It seems the owner of these two coal mines is the one filing the lawsuit. He's suing the West Virginia Democratic Party and party chairman Nick Casey because they ran a TV ad that “defamed” his pristine character. WTF??? Talk about Goliath hitting David with a slingshot.

Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy Co., spent $3.6 million targeting Democratic candidates in 2006. The Democratic Party ran an ad titled “Not For Sale” and this ad supposedly portrayed Blankenship as being not terribly broken up over the deaths that occurred in his mines.

And now the poor offended mining CEO is suing for compensatory damages, punitive damages and a public apology.

Republicans are always saying we have too many lawsuits; too much litigation. Undoubtedly they're just furious about this frivolous lawsuit taking up the court’s valuable time. Right???