According to state legal journal the West Virginia Record, Earl Waddell filed suit on December 6 against Alpha Natural Resources, Alpha Appalachia Services, Performance Coal, Alpha Appalachia Holdings, Alpha Natural Resources Services, Consolidation Coal, Mountain Energy, Mountain Edge Mining, Lightening Contract Services and Westmoreland Coal.

The 66-year-old disabled miner, according to the documentation, filed his personal injury suit because he worked underground in positions which regularly exposed him to “substantial amounts of respirable dust, including coal dust and crystalline silica – known to cause respiratory diseases including simple coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, bronchitis, emphysema, simple silicosis, complicated silicosis and other respiratory diseases”

The case filing also includes claims by Waddell that he was exposed to dangerous levels of respirable dust exceeding regulatory outlines.

The case has been filed as 12-C-240, and the former miner is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, litigation costs, pre and post-judgment interest and other relief.

The following day, Justin Smith filed suit against Alpha as well as placement firm David Stanley Consultants, Elk Run Coal and Alpha Natural Resources Services.

In the case, recorded formally as 12-C-242, Smith claimed he was terminated unlawfully after two months’ of work at the Black King mine because he suffered a “compensable injury” and filed for workers’ compensation benefits.

The worker is seeking lost wages and benefits as well as back and forward pay, personal and punitive damages, pre-judgment interest, court expenses and other relief.

On December 11, former Brody mine worker Josh Chafin filed suit alleging that the operation’s owner, Brody Mining, “terminated him by unlawful retaliatory discharge” in August after he was injured and filed a workers’ compensation claim that was ruled in his favor.

Chafin is seeking lost wages and benefits, back and forward pay, personal and punitive damages, pre-judgment interest, court costs and other relief. His case is filed as 12-C-244.

Hearing dates, representation and judge assignments were not available.