Federal Judge Tosses Out Lawsuit Over 1968 W. Va. Mine Blast
Smoke pours out of Consolidation Coal’s No. 9 Mine, in Farmington, on Nov. 20, 1968.
[Click image to enlarge]
A federal judge in West Virginia has tossed out a lawsuit filed by relatives of 78 miners killed in a 1968 mine explosion.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that U.S. District Judge Irene Keeley ruled Friday in Clarksburg that laws at the time stipulated there was a two-year window to file a lawsuit after the disaster.
The latest lawsuit, filed in 2014, was based on a federal mine inspector’s memo that was written two years after the explosion at Consolidation Coal Co.’s No. 9 Mine, in Farmington, indicating that an alarm had been disabled. The families, who earlier had received $10,000 from the company, said they did not find out about the memo until 2008.
The disaster led to passage of the federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act.
Source: (April 3, 3017) The Associated Press
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