‘The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption’ by Laurence Leamer

[mahatmakanejeeves]

‘The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption’ by Laurence Leamer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-price-of-justice-a-true-story-of-greed-and-corruption-by-laurence-leamer/2013/09/06/5d50dcbe-f929-11e2-b018-5b8251f0c56e_story.html

By Greg Schneider,

Hugh Caperton had a pretty sweet life in 1997 when he ruined it by cutting a deal with the devil. Or not the devil, exactly, but a businessman named Don Blankenship, who might as well be Beelzebub for the way he’s characterized in “The Price of Justice,” a new book about epic legal battles in the coal country of West Virginia. It all started, in simplified form, something like this:

Caperton, the second cousin of former West Virginia governor Gaston Caperton, had bought a small coal-mining company and was trying to build it up. The company was dependent on a single industrial customer, which used the coal to run coke furnaces for making steel. But then Blankenship’s Massey Coal bought that customer and decided to shut down the coke furnaces. Blankenship told Caperton he wouldn’t need the coal anymore. Left without a customer, Caperton decided that the only option was to sell his company to Blankenship. ... Blankenship bargained him down, down, down on the price, to a fraction of what the hapless Caperton thought the value was. Then, with his foot basically on Caperton’s throat, Blankenship walked away. No deal. Caperton had to declare bankruptcy, and Blankenship had the chance to get his company after all — for basically nothing — and fire the union miners.

His life tumbling into physical and financial ruin, Caperton summoned the courage to sue his powerful opponent, claiming Blankenship had manufactured the crisis that led to his bankruptcy. His conflict with Blankenship culminated in a case that has become an icon of damaged justice. John Grisham based his novel “The Appeal” on the case, and the matter wound up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
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A few years after most of the action in the book, Blankenship and Massey Coal achieved a new level of notoriety when the Upper Big Branch mine disaster claimed the lives of 29 men who worked for them. “The Price of Justice” makes that calamity seem infuriatingly predictable.

[Lasher]

1. Virginia court says Caperton lawsuit against former Massey Coal can proceed

April 18, 2013

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Virginia Supreme Court of Virginia ruled unanimously that Hugh Caperton and his coal companies -- Harman Mining and Sovereign Coal Sales -- can pursue a lawsuit against the former A.T. Massey Coal Co. in a Virginia circuit court.

In a 27-page opinion released on Thursday morning, Virginia's top court ruled the civil lawsuit can proceed. The same lawsuit was dismissed by the West Virginia Supreme Court three times. "The (West Virginia) court determined that a forum selection clause in an agreement between the parties required that the suit be brought in Virginia," the Virginia Supreme Court noted in its 5-0 decision.

The West Virginia version of the lawsuit originally resulted in a $50 million verdict awarded by a Boone County jury on Aug. 1, 2002. After several years of appeals, the verdict would have been worth more than $70 million by the time the West Virginia Supreme Court made its rulings.

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The Caperton-Harman case received national attention when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin should have recused himself in the Caperton case because of the appearance of impropriety.

Benjamin won his seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court in 2004 after Don Blankenship, then CEO of Massey, spent more than $3 million buying advertisements and sending out letters urging people to vote against Benjamin's opponent, incumbent Warren McGraw.

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201304180082