WELLSBURG - Mountain State Carbon has reached an 11th-hour settlement in a lawsuit filed in 2011 against its coal supplier, Central West Virginia Energy Co.
Under the terms of the agreement, the settlement amount is not being disclosed.
The suit, however, had alleged CWVEC, then owned by Massey Energy, failed to deliver the metallurgical coal it was contracted to supply to Mountain State's coke-making operations in Follansbee, choosing to instead sell it in export markets at prices significantly higher than what Mountain State Carbon would have paid.
Massey Energy merged with Alpha Natural Resources in 2011.
The complaint had been slated to go to trial today in Brooke County Circuit Court, but late Sunday the two sides told Circuit Judge Ron Wilson they'd reached a settlement.
Mountain State legal council, David B. Fawcett, partner with Reed Smith LLP in Pittsburgh, said there is little he can say about the settlement, "other than the case involved the same sort of misconduct that led to the prior verdict" in a 2005 lawsuit the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. had filed against Massey Energy. That suit, also alleging shipments had been diverted from Mountain State to higher-paying export customers, led to a nearly $220 million jury award.
