Legal News

After Massey Energy Affair, West Virginia Voters Vote Down Chief Justice

By Ashby Jones

On Tuesday, not only did West Virginia voters hand Hillary Clinton a lopsided win over Barack Obama in the state’s Democratic primary, but they also told Elliott Maynard, the chief justice of West Virginia’s Supreme Court, that he would be presiding over the state’s top court no more.

Maynard lost his re-election bid on Tuesday after being dogged for months by a scandal that erupted after photographs emerged showing him on vacation and dining with the chief executive of Massey Energy, a coal company with cases pending before the court. He finished third in a field of four candidates in the state’s Democratic primary. Only the top two candidates make the fall ballot. Click here for the NYT story; here, here, here and here for previous LB coverage.

“The voters have spoken, and it appears we’ve lost the race,” Chief Justice Maynard said in a statement. “I want to thank the people of West Virginia for allowing me the great privilege and honor of serving them as a judge and justice for nearly 28 years.”

The backstory: Maynard agreed to recuse himself from a pending case involving Massey Energy after photographs emerged of him and Massey’s CEO, Don Blankenship, gallivanting in Monte Carlo during the summer of 2006 at the same time Massey was appealing a big jury verdict against it to the state’s high court. Last November, Maynard voted with the majority in a 3-to-2 decision overturning the verdict. In response to a petition to revisit the ruling, Maynard DQed himself, citing concerns about perception and public confidence in the courts but noting that “I have no doubt in my own mind and firmly believe I have been and would be fair and impartial in this case.”

A reconstituted court reexamined the case and, last month, affirmed its earlier ruling for Massey by an identical 3-2 vote. Click here for the LB post on the ruling.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 15, 2008 (boomark / email).