Lawyers for the federal government are asking for a judge to hold 23 coal companies owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family in contempt, saying they failed to meet the terms of a settlement agreement over mine safety fines, continually made payments late and whiffed five months ago on paying the final amount of nearly a half-million dollars.
The Tuesday filing in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia includes emails from federal officials continually reminding a lawyer for the Justice companies that payments are overdue or missing.
“The only thing consistent about Defendants’ payments is the fact that they are consistently late,” wrote the lawyers on behalf of federal agencies in an accompanying memorandum.
While contending over and over that the Justice companies have flouted the fines and court orders, the filing underscored that the federal government uses monetary civil penalties as a way of demonstrating it is serious about enforcing the Mine Act “as a means to compel operators to comply with mandatory health and safety standards.”
“The Mine Act’s stated purpose is to protect the health and safety of the industry’s most precious resource — the miner,” attorneys stated in the filing. “Defendants’ continual evasion of their financial obligations under the Mine Act removes the incentive of these Defendants — and other mining companies — from complying with MSHA’s health and safety standards designed to protect the nation’s miners.”
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 monetary 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 entirely 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, but the U.S. attorneys agreed to let the Justice companies keep up with their current payments while providing leeway to pay down months of overdue payments over a 10-week period.
But the federal prosecutors say the Justice companies still have failed to comply, despite monthly reminders from August 2023 until now. They say the Justice companies still owe $579,041 to the federal government.
“Defendants appear to believe they are above the law,” wrote the lawyers on behalf of federal agencies. “Defendants failed to comply with the Mine Act, which resulted in tens of millions of dollars of penalties. They then refused to pay those penalties for years. The government was forced to file suit to collect the unpaid debt. Defendants then agreed to pay the debt in a written settlement agreement. Numerous court orders have been entered requiring Defendants to comply with the settlement agreement. Yet time and time again, they have not done so.
“The government gave Defendants ample time to complete their payment obligations and filed three requests with the Court in attempt to obtain Defendants’ compliance, all to no avail. At this juncture, civil contempt of Defendants is warranted.” The filing was signed by Christopher Kavanaugh, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia.
Jim Justice, patriarch of his family’s business network, is now a Republican nominee for U.S. Senate and is considered the front-runner because of his broad name recognition and West Virginia’s recent voting trends. He is aiming to succeed Sen. Joe Manchin, an independent who still caucuses with Democrats, in an evenly divided chamber. Justice’s campaign is entering the home stretch of an election that will culminate Nov. 5.
Last year, the same day the federal judge overseeing the mine safety fines case entered an order intended to force the Justice companies to make payments, Justice contended the federal actions were motivated by partisan politics.
“I’ll guarantee you without any doubt in the world, the Biden administration knows that I’m coming to the Senate. It’s going to flip the entire Senate and absolutely when we do that the Republicans are going to take control of the Senate,” Justice said a year ago about the federal enforcement of the fines.
When Justice has been asked about conflicts with business operations, he has consistently responded that he is not directly involved anymore and that situations that seem dire at first may be worked out. During that administration briefing in June 2023, 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 that day, June 20, 2023.
“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?’”
