Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 20, 1992 TAG: 9203200260
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ABINGDON LENGTH: Medium
A Washington law firm representing the non-union companies recruited two widows of union coal miners to sign their names as plaintiffs. The firm then hired Abingdon lawyers to file and pursue the class-action lawsuit, according to court testimony and a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
Abingdon lawyer James Elliott insisted that he was looking out for the best interests of the 120,000 retired miners and widows who faced a suspension of benefits because the insurance funds have a $140 million deficit.
But the United Mine Workers union will ask a federal judge next week to remove Elliott and his law partner from the case, spokesman Joe Corcoran said Thursday.
"It's clear this is a law firm that is operating with another agenda and it's not necessarily in the best interest of our beneficiaries," Corcoran said.
U.S. District Judge Glen Williams ruled Tuesday that the benefits cannot be cut off until the conclusion of a trial in June. He ordered the Bituminous Coal Operators Association to put the trust funds back in the black by increasing contributions. The association negotiates union contracts for about 300 coal companies.
Trust fund administrators said the contributions will have to be more than doubled. The association's attorney, William Poff, said that may cause thousands of layoffs and mine closings.
Union companies burdened with the higher health-care costs will find it harder to compete with non-union companies for contracts to supply coal.
Poff and UMW attorney Robert Stropp said the short-term solution to the health care funding crisis may undermine legislation in Congress that would provide a long-term solution.
The Private Benefits Alliance, the group of non-union companies, was formed in an attempt to defeat legislation by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., to bail out the insurance funds by imposing a tax on both union and non-union companies.
The connection among the alliance, the Washington law firm - Smith, Heenan and Althen - and the Abingdon lawyers "shows how an anti-union law firm and anti-union coal companies are engaged in a conspiracy to stop the Rockefeller legislation," Corcoran said. The competitive edge gained by the coal association's cost increases is a side benefit, he said.
But Elliott said, "This is a red herring." The Rockefeller bill will be vetoed by President Bush, and even if Congress overrides the veto it may be found unconstitutional, he said.
His law partner, Mark Lawson, told Williams, "We have no hidden agenda." Coal companies funding the lawsuit "are concerned about the potential for a long and deadly strike," Lawson said.
Elliott and Lawson said they won a court order that prevents the loss of medical care that threatened the lives of their clients. It also averts strikes by miners protesting the benefits suspension that Elliott said threatened to hurt the entire coal industry.
The revelation about the involvement of non-union coal companies in the suit came in a letter from Elliott to the Washington law firm and in testimony given by Lawson when UMW and the coal association's attorneys called him to the witness stand, a move rare in the legal profession.
The letter carries the subject line "Private Benefits Alliance." Elliott wrote that the estimated fees for taking the case would be $40,000. "We understand that Smith, Heenan and Althen will be responsible for our fees and costs," he wrote.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.