Lawyers representing federal agencies contend that if coal mine companies owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family can’t afford to pay what remains of fines for mine safety violations, then they shouldn’t have agreed to make the payments.
“Defendants appear to ask the court to take them at their word, as they do not provide any evidence of their purported financial difficulties, nor have they filed for bankruptcy protection,” attorneys for federal agencies wrote in a new filing signed by Christopher Kavanaugh, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia.
“The Court should reject Defendants’ attempt to escape their agreed-upon financial obligations and should hold Defendants in civil contempt.”
The mine safety violations in the case go back a decade and involve 23 coal companies owned by the Justice family.
The case has come to a head, with the federal government moving this month to hold the companies owned by the governor and his family in contempt. Along the way, there has been a series of twists and turns.
Last summer, a federal judge intervened with an order saying the Justices needed to catch up with roughly a $500,000 in delinquent payments on fines. Attorneys representing federal agencies then gave the Justice companies a little more latitude through a settlement agreement.
The settlement agreement is what the United States attorneys are referencing when they use wording like “agreed upon.”
A silent period of more than a year went by until lawyers representing federal agencies this past Aug. 6 made a motion for contempt — saying they failed to meet the terms, continually made payments late and didn’t pay the final amount that was due five months ago.
A lawyer for the Justice coal companies responded with a filing last week that there’s a good reason: The companies don’t have the money to pay. That filing suggests the United States attorneys should have known that.
And now the federal lawyers are calling that hogwash. “All of Defendants’ arguments fail. Defendants willingly and knowingly entered into the payment plan and consent judgment in this case, representing to the government and the Court that it would comply with the payment plan in the consent judgment,” the federal lawyers wrote in the latest filing.
“Moreover, while Defendants told the government in 2023 that they had difficulty making payments, they also told the government they would be able to remedy the financial problem shortly thereafter.”
Specifically, in June 2023, the defense counsel told the government the Justice companies did not immediately have the ability to make the late payments, but that the companies would be able to borrow money from another business entity in August 2023 to catch-up on the payment plan, according to the filing by the federal lawyers.
That representation was the basis for the agreement for the modified payment schedule, the federal attorneys wrote.
“Yet once again, Defendants failed to comply with the adjusted payment plan. Defendants have not provided any explanation for their noncompliance. Between August 2023 and present, Defendants did not communicate to the government an inability to pay on the modified schedule, nor did they seek alternative payment arrangements with the government,” wrote the lawyers for the federal government.
Justice has regularly made statements to indicate his businesses are eventually good for what’s due.
During an administration briefing Aug. 9, just a few days after the attorneys representing the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration filed for contempt over the unpaid penalties, West Virginia Watch reporter Caity Coyne asked the governor how he could square his proclaimed appreciation for miners with his companies’ failure to comply with a federal order to pay down fines for safety violations.
In response, Justice said he has repeatedly described not being involved with the day-to-day operations of the Justice companies any more.
“But I can tell you this — just like anyone. From time to time you have a tough go of it and everything. But every single time, I don’t know how many times I’ve got to tell you — if there’s a problem, it gets taken care of. And we take care of it, and everything,” Justice said.
“Sure we may be a few minutes late to the fire, but we always show up at the fire.”
This case dates back a decade to 2014.
After inspections at about 50 mines owned by Justice, the Mine Safety and Health Administration issued hundreds of citations and orders for violations. Between 2014 and 2019, the Justice companies failed to pay civil penalties for the violations, totaling $4,776,370, according to federal officials.
In May 2019, the federal prosecutors under the Trump administration’s Department of Justice filed suit over the debt on behalf of the U.S. Secretary of Labor and MSHA. It’s a civil case, the United States of America vs. Southern Coal Corp., et al.
The two sides reached a joint stipulation in 2020, with the Justice companies agreeing to pay a little more than $5 million. The companies were supposed to make monthly payments of $102,442 until the debt was fully paid. The payoff date was supposed to be March 1, 2024.
The payments started getting spotty in December 2021 and January 2022, but then improved somewhat after federal officials filed notice of non-compliance.
Then in early 2023, a period of non-payment began, according to the federal prosecutors who said they repeatedly notified the Justice companies of past due amounts. Payments were missed that January, February, March, April and May. The federal prosecutors asked at that point for the court to intervene with an order to pay the past due amount.
Last June, the federal judge overseeing the case entered that order.
The same day last year that the judge entered the order, the governor made public statements contending the federal actions were motivated by partisan politics because of his run as a Republican for U.S. Senate.
During that administration briefing last June, Justice devoted a 12-minute conclusion to describing a track record of eventually making good on debts.
“I’ve said many, many times, judge me for what I’m doing as your governor. Absolutely leave my family’s business to my son and daughter. Let them do their job. And at the end of the day see where it comes out,” Justice said then.
“If you want to, write it down and put it in a box. When you go back in a couple of weeks, I bet you and I promise you with my family’s businesses you’re going to say ‘dag, we got all this worked out, everything is fine and dandy — what in the world were we doing?’”
