MASSEY'S $3 MILLION JUSTICE BENJAMIN ASKED TO RECUSE SELF

(02/15/2008)
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel wants state Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin to recuse himself from a $240 million case pitting the steelmaker against Massey Energy.

Republican Benjamin received about $3 million dollars from Massey's CEO Don Blankenship in getting elected to the high court, using an advertising campaign called "For the Sake of the Children."

Thus far Benjamin has refused to step aside, although his associate justice Spike Maynard has done so in another Massey coal case after photographs of Maynard and Blankenship released to the media showed them vacationing together in Monaco.

Lower courts have ruled that Massey is guilty of wrongdoing in failing to live up to their contract with the steelmaker, having shipped quality coal overseas for more money.

Massey is appealing the $240 million-dollar judgment in the breach of contract suit.