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CHARLESTON - A deal between companies owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and the federal government to address unpaid mine safety fines and penalties could be in jeopardy due to infrequent payments.
Aaron Houchens, an attorney representing Justice’s companies, submitted a response Monday to a motion to compel compliance with an April 2020 consent decree filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia after Justice’s companies missed their March installment of $102,442.
“(Justice’s companies) have now paid the March 2022 installment, and this payment renders the sole relief requested by the United States moot,” Houchens wrote.
In the motion filed Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Laura Day Taylor and Krista Consiglio Frith wrote Justice’s companies stopped making consistent monthly payments starting in December.
In 2020, Senior District Judge Glen Conrad issued an order accepting an agreement with 23 Justice-owned companies to pay $5.1 million to the U.S. government.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration brought a lawsuit against the companies in 2019 seeking $4.8 million in unpaid mine safety penalties. Between May 3, 2014, and May 3, 2019, the 23 companies named in the suit were issued 2,297 citations and civil penalties by federal mine inspectors. According to court filings, Justice’s companies didn’t pay the penalties and didn’t provide notice of intent to contest the penalties.
Read more in Wednesday’s edition of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel.