A trial team led by Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney shareholder David Fawcett and including shareholder Gregory Krock, associate Ann Schiavone, and legal assistants Robert Devine and Kathleen Eichner, recently won a $219 million jury verdict on behalf of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation. The dispute alleged fraud against Massey Coal Company and breach of contract on the part of one of its subsidiary coal sales companies, Central West Virginia Energy Company. The verdict included $119 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages – $50 million against each defendant.
"The jury did the right thing," Fawcett said. "It sent a powerful message that companies in business arrangements cannot disregard their obligations, act with callous disregard of the rights of their customers, and then just claim that it's just the way you have to do business if you want to succeed."
"Wheeling-Pitt was totally reliant upon its coal supplier, Massey Energy, but when the price of coal went up in 2004 and 2005, Massey sold and shipped coal to new, higher-priced customers and shorted its long-time customer, Wheeling-Pitt. Then it claimed that it treated all customers fairly. That just wasn't the case. We showed the jury extensive documentation proving not only that this was false, but that Massey was working hard to fool Wheeling-Pitt and cover up its misconduct. Doing business in that type of manner should not be tolerated. The punitive awards were appropriate under the special circumstances of this case, where Massey knew that Wheeling-Pitt could go under due to Massey's disregard of its longtime customer in favor of short-term profits."
The jury verdict in favor of Wheeling-Pitt came after a five-week trial in the Circuit Court for Brooke County, West Virginia.
The lawsuit was filed in April 2005, after Massey subsidiary Central West Virginia Energy Company failed to deliver 104,000 tons of metallurgical grade coal per month to the steelmaker as required under a contract that extended to 2010. The complaint was amended more than a year later, based on extensive documents obtained from Massey in discovery. Wheeling-Pitt claimed that the defendants started diverting coal to higher-price customers, mainly export customers in Europe and
