The Massey Coal company case in West Virginia with its sister case in Virginia was a $ 50 million verdict, with a legal malpractice case arising from a similar loss in Virginia and the failure appropriately to file an appeal.  From this post both seem doomed.

"Posted on November 22, 2007 by Jeffrey V. Mehalic 
Yesterday was the last day of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia’s Fall Term, and the Court released several opinions, including its decision in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Company, Inc., No 33350. (The Westlaw opinion is not available yet, so the link is to the PDF version on the Court’s website.)

At stake was the $50 million verdict in the plaintiffs’ favor, based on the jury’s finding that A.T. Massey Coal Company, Inc. and several of its subsidiaries intentionally interfered with and destroyed Hugh Caperton’s business. With accrued interest since the verdict in 2002, the plaintiffs’ judgment had grown to approximately $76 million. Here’s my post from last month when the case was argued.

In a 3-2 decision written by Chief Justice Robin Davis, the Supreme Court reversed the verdict and remanded the case to the Circuit Court of Lincoln County with directions to enter an order dismissing with prejudice the plaintiffs’ claims against the defendants. The Court identified two grounds for the reversal. First, the circuit court should have granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss based on a forum selection clause contained in “a contract directly related to the conflict giving rise to the instant lawsuit.” Second, assuming that the circuit court’s ruling on the forum selection clause was not erroneous, the Supreme Court found that the doctrine of res judicata based on an action that had been litigated in Virginia.

The Virginia litigation to which the Court refers is the plaintiffs’ 1998 suit against a Massey subsidiary in the Circuit Court of Buchanan County, Virginia, which alleged breach of contract and breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing. Only the breach of contract claim was considered by the jury, which returned a verdict in the plaintiffs’ favor for $6 million. That verdict resulted in Massey suing its Virginia counsel for malpractice, on the grounds that they failed to sign the notice of appeal, which resulted in the dismissal of the appeal and the affirmance of the verdict."