Shamrock Coal Co., Inc. v. Maricle

JOHNSTONE, Justice.

Appellant, Shamrock Coal Company, Inc. (Shamrock), appeals from a Court of Appeals’ decision denying Shamrock’s petition for a writ prohibiting the Leslie Circuit Court from proceeding in a group of consolidated civil actions brought by a number of its former employees who allege that they have contracted the disease of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis as a consequence of their employment. We granted discretionary review and reverse.

Prior to the 1996 revision of the Workers’ Compensation Act (“House Bill 1”), KRS 342.732 provided that a worker with a radiographic classification…