Federal judge rejects coal company’s Illinois lawsuit alleging MSHA quotas, abusive monitoring

Judge rejects coal company’s Ill. lawsuit vs. MHSA

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A federal judge has tossed out a coal company’s lawsuit accusing mine regulators of abusive oversight and quota-driven citations targeting its southern Illinois operation, ruling that the company didn’t sufficiently make its case.

U.S. District Judge Michael Reagan, in his ruling last Friday, gave American Coal Co. until March 4 to take another try with a retooled lawsuit featuring “new counts that advance valid theories of relief” from the U.S. Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Reagan wrote that if the company did not meet the deadline, he would throw out the November 2008 lawsuit “with prejudice,” meaning American Coal would be barred from suing again with the same claim.

While rejecting the mining administration’s claims that the federal court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case because administrative remedies had not been exhausted, Reagan said American Coal had not presented “allegations entitling it to relief under the only theories it advances.”

In the lawsuit requesting that a judge prevent the administration from handing out what the company called “unfounded and baseless violation citations,” Reagan said it was “possible that the allegations in the complaint entitle American Coal to some sort of relief. Whatever that would be, though, would not be under the theories advanced so far.

“Accordingly, the court will give American Coal one last chance to justify its suit,” the judge wrote.

Messages left with the Mine Safety and Health Administration and attorneys for both sides Tuesday were not returned.

Murray Energy Corp., American Coal’s Cleveland-based corporate parent that entered the national spotlight in 2007 when nine people died in one of its Utah mines, sent an e-mail to The Associated Press declining to discuss Reagan’s ruling, citing the pending litigation.

American Coal filed the lawsuit just weeks after the mining administration fined the company $1.46 million for alleged infractions involving its Galatia operation in southern Illinois’ Saline County.

At that time, other mine operators said the Mine Safety and Health Administration had become heavy-handed — stifling productivity and cutting into profits — to counter criticism of questionable oversight after a string of high-profile mine accidents that killed dozens in recent years.

Mine-safety regulators told a House panel Tuesday that a backlog of new cases has jumped from roughly 2,700 in 2006 to about 16,000 cases now. Some Democrats claim mine operators are purposely clogging the system by contesting more violations. The mining industry blames new regulations for eliminating more informal procedures to compromise penalties.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration this month set a mid-March deadline to start cracking down on the most common violations cited during fatal accident investigations. As part of part of the agency’s “Rules to Live By” campaign, inspectors also will look specifically to make operators obey 24 regulations breached in about half of 589 mining deaths from 2000 through 2008. Once the agency starts cracking down on violators, inspectors also will look for reasons to increase fines, MSHA chief Joe Main said.

Even before filing its lawsuit, American Coal in mid-2008 pressed the Labor Department’s internal watchdog to investigate the regulator’s inspection practices because of its monitoring of American Coal’s southern Illinois operation.

Murray said the fines levied in October 2008 were politically motivated retaliation for the company’s pursuit of the probe into the agency and were “one more example of MSHA trying to rehabilitate its own public image at the expense of mining companies and business.”