Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 27, 1991 TAG: 9103270509
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Union miners waited and wondered when the fines would come crashing down on the UMW's treasury. But Tuesday, the Virginia Court of Appeals propped up miners' hopes and took about half the load off their backs.
In a 2-1 decision, an appeals court panel declared that $31.4 million in fines against the union arising from the strike were erased when the union settled with Pittston Coal Group early last year.
The appeals court sent the case back to the Russell County Circuit Judge Donald McGlothlin Jr. with directions that the fines be vacated.
"The UMW is obviously relieved with this decision, and we trust what has been a very difficult period for all concerned is now behind us," UMW President Richard Trumka said in a prepared statement.
The union will not start celebrating yet because about $30 million in fines are still in the courts, said Donnie Lowe, president of UMW Virginia District 28.
James Vergara, a UMW attorney from Hopewell, said the cases involving the remaining fines have been briefed for the appeals court, but no trial date has been set.
As for Tuesday's ruling, Vergara said, "I think my clients are very happy. They feel the position they asserted all along is vindicated."
The UMW's strike against Pittston began April 4, 1989, after months of unsuccessful bargaining for a new contract. The strike involved about 1,700 union miners in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.
During the strike, the union used wide-scale civil disobedience, such as sit-down demonstrations and the occupation of Pittston's largest coal-processing plant, drawing worldwide attention. Several incidents of violence aimed at Pittston supervisors and replacement workers marred the strike.
The fines vacated by the appeals court were levied by McGlothlin between May 16 and Oct. 9, 1989, as a result of five findings of civil contempt against the union. McGlothlin cited the union for failing to obey his injunctions regulating picket-line activity by striking miners, including restrictions against violence.
McGlothlin refused to do away with the fines at the end of the strike, saying to do so would undermine his court's authority.
But the union argued that Virginia law requires that civil-contempt sanctions such as fines are made irrelevant when the parties to a dispute settle their differences. That was true, the union said, whether the civil fines were levied to compensate Pittston or to force the union to obey the court's orders.
The appeals court agreed.
`[W]hile we recognize the magnitude of the violations of the trial court's order in this case," wrote Chief Appeals Court Judge Lawrence L. Koontz Jr., "we hold that civil-contempt fines imposed during or as a part of a civil proceeding between private parties are settled when the underlying litigation is settled by the parties and the [circuit] court is without discretion to refuse to vacate such fines."
In his 14-page opinion, however, Koontz seemed to be allowing McGlothlin the option to punish the union for contempt through proper criminal proceedings. McGlothlin was holding court in Dickenson County Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
Pittston and the UMW settled the legal proceedings between them as part of the agreement ending the 10 1/2-month strike on Feb. 19, 1990. Pittston supported the union's argument that the fines be killed. UMW Vice President Cecil Roberts said Tuesday that the union was pleased that the appeals court has recognized the importance of "this vital part of our settlement with Pittston."
The union had also argued in its appeal that even though McGlothlin's fines had been imposed during civil proceedings, they were in effect criminal fines because they were designed to punish the union.
During an appeals court hearing in Salem in October, UMW lawyer Andrew Miller, a former Virginia attorney general, argued: "I think [McGlothlin] lost track of the fact that the overall proceeding was between [Pittston] and the union."
The fines were not imposed to compensate Pittston but to enforce McGlothlin's authority, Miller said. If that was the case, McGlothlin should have moved the cases to criminal court and given the union an opportunity for a jury trial, he said.
The appeals court, however, found it unnecessary to deal with whether the fines were criminal fines that were improperly imposed during a civil proceeding. The court assumed the fines were civil fines for the purpose of making its decision.
Koontz wrote for himself and Judge Marvin F. Cole. Appellate Judge Joseph E. Baker dissented but did not write an opinion.
In two related cases, the appeals court also reversed roughly $650,000 in fines imposed against the union in Buchanan and Tazewell counties. Those cases involved the union's strike against two coal companies, Covenant and Shenandoah, that were subcontractors of Pittston.
The court ruled that those contempt fines, which were levied in civil proceedings, were nevertheless criminal in nature and that the union was therefore denied the constitutional protections due a criminal defendant.
The two companies would presumably be able to appeal Tuesday's decision to the state Supreme Court.
Jackie Stump, who was president of the UMW district during the strike and is now a member of the House of Delegates - having beaten McGlothlin's father for a seat - was at a redistricting hearing in Wytheville Tuesday and had not heard details of the court ruling. But he said if it were true, "Yeah, it would make me happy."
Tuesday's ruling had no effect on $280,000 in federal court fines remaining against the union. Those fines are being appealed.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
by CNB