M & J Coal Co. v. United States

ORDER

MOODY R. TIDWELL, III, Judge:

This case is before the court on the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment pursuant to RCFC 56. For the reasons set forth below the court grants defendant’s motion and denies plaintiffs’ motion.

FACTS

I. Background

The seeds of this dispute were planted in the early part of this century, when the owners of approximately seven hundred acres of real estate situated in the mountainous terrain of Lincoln District, Marion County, West Virginia began selling mining rights to various coal companies. Between 1904 and 1920 those owners, through various mineral…