Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Massey Energy Co., the fifth-largest U.S. coal company, succeeded for a second time in getting a $50 million jury verdict thrown out five months after the U.S. Supreme Court said West Virginia’s highest court had to re-hear the case because one justice should have recused himself.

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia again reversed the jury verdict and dismissed the case in an opinion filed yesterday. In November 2007, it first overturned the award won by a competing coal supplier. In June this year, the U.S. Supreme Court said West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin shouldn’t have taken part in two 3-2 decisions that blocked the award. Massey’s chairman, Donald Blankenship, had spent $3 million to get Benjamin elected.

The jury concluded that Massey, based in Richmond, Virginia, drove Harman Mining Corp. out of business by acquiring the sole buyer of Harman’s coal and then sharply reducing purchases. It awarded the money to Harman and owner Hugh Caperton. In its ruling yesterday, the West Virginia high court reiterated its earlier finding that Virginia courts were the proper forum for the dispute.

“The Harman Companies and Mr. Caperton have not argued, either below or before this court, that enforcement of the forum-selection clause,” which required “that this case be litigated in Virginia, was unreasonable or unjust,” the court said in its decision by Justice Robin Jean Davis. Justice Margaret L. Workman dissented. Benjamin, having been disqualified, didn’t participate.

The West Virginia lawsuit was filed in 1998.

‘Lengthy Saga’

“It is a shame that there has been yet another miscarriage of justice in this lengthy saga,” Bruce Stanley, a lawyer for Caperton, said in a phone interview. “While we have not had the opportunity to review the opinion in detail, even a cursory review raises a number of serious constitutional concerns. Certainly we will consider all alternative avenues of relief going forward.”

Stanley is a partner at Reed Smith LLP in Pittsburgh.

David Fawcett, a lawyer for Harman at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC in Pittsburgh, didn’t immediately return a call for comment yesterday.

“We have always stated that the West Virginia Supreme Court’s initial decision in favor of Massey was correct, the essential facts in this case have not changed and no legal arguments were presented by our opponent that would have merited reversal,” Massey General Counsel Shane Harvey said in a statement.

The case is Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., 33350, Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia (Charleston).

To contact the reporter on this story: Thom Weidlich in New York at tweidlich@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 13, 2009 00:01 EST