The West Virginia Supreme Court has denied the request of plaintiffs to reconsider an earlier decision in Massey Energy’s favor in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal.

Harman Mining and Sovereign Coal Sales filed a "petition for rehearing" in December, arguing the Supreme Court's decision written in November by Justice Robin Davis created new law and retroactively applied to earlier hearings.

"The company is pleased with this result and happy to have this matter finalized,” said Shane Harvey, Massey Vice President and General Counsel.

The November decision overturned a $50 million Boone County jury verdict against A.T. Massey Coal for violating a long-term coal contract. The state Supreme Court ruled 4-1 that Hugh Caperton, owner of Harman, was not legally entitled to pursue a second lawsuit against Massey because he already won a $6 million verdict following a jury trial in Buchanan County, Va.

Caperton claimed the Virginia verdict covered only one year's worth of financial damages to his company, which went into bankruptcy after Massey took over another company that had a long-term coal supply contract with Harman. The lawsuit filed in Boone County sought damages to cover long-term losses after Harman closed its mine near Grundy, Va., and declared bankruptcy.

Caperton's lawyer Rob Berthold said Davis retroactively applied newly created law in the ruling and wants the case reheard in Boone County.

"We are asking for court to send it back to Boone County Circuit Court to have Judge (Jay) Hoke for further proceedings," Berthold said in a Dec. 15 interview.

Hoke presided over the seven-week trial in 2002.

Berthold said Hoke and the jury never heard the arguments Davis made in the decision about "forum selection" to deny Caperton and Harman their right to a second suit against Massey.

Berthold claims his client was denied the right to make new legal arguments after the case was sent back to the state Supreme Court in June 2009.

If the state Supreme Court would have decided to hear the case, it would have been the seventh time the lawsuit has been heard since first filed in 1998. Overall it would have the fourth time the case was presented in front of the state Supreme Court.

Berthold said in last December’s interview that if the state Supreme Court rejected the newest petition, and an earlier one filed on behalf of Caperton personally, the case could again be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.