Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990 TAG: 9003270292
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The justices unanimously reversed a ruling by West Virginia's highest court that the law, and its system for awarding lawyer fees in black-lung benefits cases, violates due-process rights.
Pneumoconiosis, a chronic respiratory and pulmonary disease commonly called black lung, afflicts numerous coal miners.
Under the Black Lung Benefits Act, Congress provides disability payments to those miners who are unable to work because of the disease.
Those who apply for such benefits are entitled to have a lawyer's help, and lawyers who assist miners in obtaining benefits have their fees paid by the coal mine operator, its insurance carrier or the government.
To get such fees paid, a lawyer must apply separately to the Labor Department and to the official who presided over the application hearing. No fees award is made until a miner receives a final award of benefits.
West Virginia lawyer George R. Triplett, beginning in 1978, entered into contingent-fee agreements to help about 15 miners seeking black-lung benefits. The agreements entitled Triplett to one-fourth of any back benefits collected by the miners.
Since the fees Triplett collected between 1978 and 1983 were never approved by the Labor Department or any court, they were in violation of Labor Department regulations.
The West Virginia State Bar's Committee on Legal Ethics in 1987 recommended that the state's highest court suspend Triplett for six months for violating the regulations.
The state Supreme Court of Appeals, in a 3-2 decision in 1988, refused to enforce the suspension.
The case is Labor Department vs. Triplett, 88-1671.
by CNB