The family of Thomas Anderson – his father, sister and four brothers – filed a lawsuit June 7 in Kanawha Circuit Court in the state’s capital city of Charleston, citing emotional distress, according to local news outlet the West Virginia Record.
They are seeking compensatory and punitive damages for an undisclosed amount in the suit, which also names Wolf Run Mining (aka Anker West Virginia Mining) as a defendant.
Specifically, the documentation from the family claims that they waited at the church near the Sago mine portal from January 2 to January 4, and both Hatfield and ICG told them “false and misleading information,” including Anderson’s condition and whether he was still living.
The group calls the operator’s acts “extreme, outrageous, beyond the bounds of decency, atrocious, and intolerable such that it was substantially certain that emotional distress would result,” the paper said.
The June 7 filing is the second by Anderson’s family since the accident. Last November documentation was filed on behalf of his estate and family against ICG, Wolf Run, Burrell Mining Products, Raleigh Mine and Industrial Supply, CSE and GMS Mine Repair and Maintenance.
ICG idled the Sago operation in March of this year, citing weak coal prices and high operational costs. Company spokesman Ira Gamm told the Associated Press at the time that the explosion was not a factor in the decision, but rather “part of our ongoing evaluation of our operations”
