Legal News

More Recusal Requests at the West Virginia Supreme Court

By Peter Lattman

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then is a few pictures of a chief justice socializing with a litigant appearing before him worth a thousand recusals?

The imbroglio surrounding conflicts of interest at the West Virginia Supremes has serious legs. Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp. is expected to seek the disqualification of two justices on the Mountain State High Court in a case involving a $250 million verdict against Massey Energy, which Massey is seeking to appeal. This follows last week’s recusal by Chief Justice Elliott Maynard in a in a separate case against Massey after this photo and others surfaced showing him socializing in Monaco with the coal company’s CEO, Don Blankenship, while the case was pending before him. Here’s a WSJ story, Law Blog background and a Charleston Gazette story.

Wheeling-Pitt is expected to ask Chief Justice Maynard to recuse himself from its case, along with Justice Brent Benjamin, who received substantial financial support in his judicial election campaign from Blankenship. Wheeling-Pittsburgh won the verdict in July a five-week trial in a case involving a contract dispute over 104,000 tons of metallurgical coal.

Law Blog YouTube Video of the Day: The Law Blog can’t hear the word Wheeling without thinking of Billy the Kid — specifically Billy Joel’s “Ballad of Billy the Kid.” How about some some of Billy Joel’s finest on this Monday morning, along with clips from Clint Eastwood’s famed spaghetti Westerns. Click here and enjoy.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 28, 2008 (boomark / email).