No.9: The 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster

Hidden Evidence

Hidden Evidence In November 1970, just days before recovery workers found her husband ’s body, Ethel McDonald joined 34 other widows in two lawsuits against Consolidation Coal.1 Kenneth Yablonski, the son of slain Jock Yablonski, had agreed to represent the widows and filed a lawsuit in Marion County, West Virginia. An identical lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania, where Consol was headquartered . The widows were each seeking $113,000 for a total of just under $4 million. They claimed the company and its president, John Corcoran, “negligently, carelessly, recklessly and willfully” operated an unsafe mine.2 The money they sought would have been nothing to Consol or its corporate owner,Continental Oil.In 1969,Continental netted more than $146 million ,which in 2009 dollars equals about $805 million.Continental’s president anticipated even greater yields in 1970, in part, because the market and price conditions were favorable. Continental expected to sell 60 to 65 million tons of coal in 1970, up from 53.9 million in 1969.3 In short, business was good. The odds, however, did not favor the No.9 widows. From the beginning , they were at a disadvantage because West Virginia’s workmen’s compensation law did more to protect employers than employees and their families. Any employer who paid into the state’s workmen’s compensation fund could not be held liable for damages if an employee was injured or killed on the job. How the person died or was hurt did not matter; neither individual employees nor their families could sue. Dependents of the dead 17 160 CHAPTER 17 could do no more than collect the meager payments available through the state fund, with one exception. If someone could prove that an employer had deliberate intention to cause death or injury to an employee, then the person’s dependents could sue for any excess damages not covered by the workmen’s compensation law. In their lawsuit, the widows accused the company of: • hiring and failing to fire incompetent supervisors who knowingly disobeyed coal mining laws • putting production before safety • knowingly sending men into a dangerous mine • allowing dangerous conditions to exist • failing to ventilate and fireboss the mine properly • failing to rock dust the mine adequately • failing to maintain equipment “Willfully”operating an unsafe mine,however,did not meet the“deliberate intent”stipulation.Yablonski,therefore,argued that WestVirginia’s workmen ’s compensation law was unconstitutional because the money it paid the widows was not equal to the earnings their dead spouses brought home. Their case lingered in court as their lawyers tried to negotiate a settlement with the coal company. What neither the widows nor their attorney knew was that more than a month before they filed their lawsuits, a federal official had discovered the evidence they needed to win their case. The Memo On September 5, 1970, federal coal mine inspector Larry L. Layne and a recovery crew of nine men were working near the Mods Run airshafts. That day, for the first time since the disaster, they re-energized the Mods Run substation, a power unit on the surface that sent electricity underground. A few days later, the electrician who had re-energized the substation told Layne that someone had deliberately disabled the Mods Run fan’s safety alarm before the disaster. The electrician had found jumper wires HIDDEN EVIDENCE 161 bypassing both the fan alarm system and the mechanism that would have automatically shut off the power to the entire mine within minutes after the fan stopped or stalled.4 Immediately, Layne sent a handwritten memo to his federal district supervisor, James D. Micheal, in Morgantown. Micheal initialed the memo three days later and wrote at the bottom: “Copy to W.R. Park, Marshalek” and “Enter in notes.” Joseph Marshalek was a federal supervising inspector at the No.9. William R. Park was a federal district supervisor in Mount Hope, West Virginia.5 Almost two more weeks passed before a copy of the memo was sent to William R. Park.6 When Park received the memo, he made this note to “Montana,” presumably someone in his office: “Keep with other material on No.9 explosion.”7 What Marshalek did with the memo is unknown. Several times, Layne asked his superiors what had happened to his memo, but no one ever gave him an answer. Not long after he wrote it, Layne was transferred to Wheeling, West Virginia. When he saw...