State Ex Rel. Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation v. Vieweg

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

Three days before leaving office in 1977, a former Governor settled the State of West Virginia’s lawsuit against Pittston Coal for its culpability in the Buffalo Creek disaster, thereby depriving the people of West Virginia of their day in court against a coal company that had betrayed the public trust and ignored its obligations to society.1

No lives were lost in the cases presently at issue before this Court, but Commissioner Vieweg’s decision to drop these lawsuits against various coal companies deprives the citizens of their day in court, just as surely and just as…