Large v. Clinchfield Coal Co.

In these two appeals, we decide whether the owners of the surface of a tract of real property are entitled to prohibit “longwall” coal mining. This coal mining method involves the removal of all the coal in a seam without leaving any supporting pillars of coal and results in a subsidence in the land surface.

Gerald and Betty Large own 81 acres of unimproved and uninhabited timberland in a mountainous area of Dickenson County. Clinchfield Coal Company (Clinchfield) owns the coal under the *14681 acres as the successor in title to parties who had acquired the coal from the Larges’s predecessors in…