(Adds statement from Harman Development attorney in 8th paragraph and statement from Massey Energy in 10th paragraph.)
By Mark H. Anderson Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday accepted an appeal over whether a West Virginia justice should have stepped aside from a $50 million judgment involving the chief executive of A.T. Massey Coal Co., a major contributor to the justice's political coffers.
Brent Benjamin, a West Virginia justice, accepted more than $3 million in campaign contributions from Don Blankenship, the A.T. Massey executive, but has twice joined a 3-2 majority ruling that threw out the judgment against the company. The $50 million verdict stems from a business fraud lawsuit filed against A.T. Massey, a unit of Massey Energy Co. (MEE), by Harman Development Corp., a privately-held mining company based in Beckley, W.Va.
Harman Development claims it was forced into bankruptcy because of fraudulent maneuvering by A.T. Massey to secure coal supply contracts at a steel plant.
Blankenship's contributions to the Benjamin judicial campaign came in 2004 and represented more than half of the campaign funds for Benjamin's political campaign to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, court documents said.
Harman Development appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court after Benjamin declined requests that he not rule on the verdict in the business dispute. Benjamin was the deciding vote in rulings that threw out the judgment against A.T. Massey.
The West Virginia high court last ruled in the case in April.
Harman Development, in a court brief, urged the Supreme Court to hear the case and "clarify the circumstances in which due process requires the recusal of an elected judge who has benefited from a litigant's substantial campaign expenditures."
Ted Olson, Harman Development's Washington-based attorney for the appeal, said "the issue raised by massive campaign contributions to judges from litigants and their attorneys go to the very heart of what it means to be given a fair trial."
A.T. Massey said Benjamin's participation in the case "did not deprive petitioners of due process." The Massey brief argued the issue of when an elected justice should step aside from a case isn't one that the Supreme Court should take up.
"We respect the court's decision to review this case and look forward to the ultimate resolution of this matter," said Shane Harvey, Massey Energy's general counsel. "We are confident that the Harman case was properly decided by the West Virginia Supreme Court."
The case is Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., 08-22. Oral arguments will be held in early 2009.
In other Supreme Court action:
- The justices also agreed to decide whether the government can bring a second round of criminal charges against a former executive at Enron Corp.'s broadband unit. A federal grand jury in 2005 returned additional charges against Scott Yeager, a former vice president at Enron Broadband Services, after he was acquitted of some counts in an earlier trial. The jury had also failed to reach a verdict on some of the charges.
Yeager, along with other executives, was accused of engaging in fraud to drive up Enron's stock price and in turn sell the company's stock for millions of dollars. In the second set of charges, Yeager was charged under federal insider trading and money laundering statutes.
A U.S. District Court and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans both determined Yeager could be retried for charges where the earlier jury had failed to reach a conclusion.
The case is Yeager v. U.S., 08-67, and oral arguments will be held in early 2009.
-By Mark H. Anderson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9254; mark.anderson@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 14, 2008 17:08 ET (22:08 GMT)

Publié le 14 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones