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CHARLESTON -- A deal between companies owned by Gov. Jim Justice and the federal government to pay unpaid mine safety fines and penalties could be in jeopardy due to infrequent payments by Justice's companies.
Aaron Houchens, an attorney representing Justice's companies, filed 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.
The U.S. Attorney's Office filed its motion last Thursday in District Court for the Western District of Virginia Roanoke Division seeking the March payment. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Laura Day Taylor and Krista Consiglio Frith wrote Justice's companies stopped making consistent monthly payments starting in December.
"On Jan. 6, 2022, the United States filed a Notice of Non-Compliance because (Justice's companies) failed to pay their December 2021 and January 2022 payments," Taylor and Consiglio wrote. "After the United States filed its Notice of Non-Compliance, defendants paid their December 2021 and January 2022 payments on Jan. 19 and Jan. 28, 2022, respectively.
"Defendants then failed to make their February payment on time," Taylor and Consiglio continued. "After several reminders of the delinquency of the payment to defendants they made the February payment on March 14, 2022. Despite several requests to do so, as of this filing, however, defendants have not made their March payment, which is now 31 days past due."
In 2020, Senior District Judge Glen Conrad issued an order accepting the agreement between 23 Justice-owned companies and Thomas Cullen, the previous U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. According to the agreement, Justice's companies agreed 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 Justice-owned 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.
According to the 2020 settlement, the companies paid a one-time payment of $212,909.44 and agreed to pay $102,442 per month by the first of every month until the $5.1 million is paid in full. With the March payment, more than $2.4 million has been paid to the federal government.