Opinion ID: 1211933
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Slab Fork Case

Text: One of the two appeals involves a jury trial that was conducted by a Mass Litigation Panel judge in March, April, and May of 2006, involving a number of defendants' mining and timbering operations in the Slab Fork and Oceana sub-watersheds of the Upper Guyandotte River (the Slab Fork case). In the Slab Fork case, the Panel judge adopted a Trial Plan in which a jury in a Phase I trial was asked to answer the following common issues questions as to each defendant: 1. Whether, as to each Defendant's individual operation or operations, the Defendant's use of its property materially increased the peak rate of surface water runoff leaving that operation as a result of the storm events on or about July 8, 2001, compared to the rate of peak surface water runoff that would have left the operation but for the Defendant's use of that property, and if so; 2. Whether the water from the individual Defendant's operations materially caused or contributed to, the stream or streams into which they discharged to overflow their banks, and; 3. Regardless of the findings made in 1 and 2 above, whether the Defendant's use of the property in question was unreasonable under the circumstances set forth by the Supreme Court of Appeals in the case of In re Flood Litigation, 216 W.Va. 534, 607 S.E.2d 863 (2004). Under the Trial Plan, the jury's answer to the three questions in the Phase I trial would determine whether a particular defendant could be held liable to a particular plaintiff in subsequent proceedings. Phase I of the Trial Plan excluded evidence from individual plaintiffs and other lay evidence about the flooding  limiting both sides primarily to expert witnesses. Prior to and during the Phase I trial, claims against a number of defendants were voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiffs (some due to settlements), leaving the jury at the end of the Phase I trial to answer the three questions only as they applied to two related defendant companies  the appellees Western Pocahontas Properties LLP and Western Pocahontas Corporation (together, Western Pocahontas), whose properties were located only in the Slab Fork watershed  and had only been timbered, not mined. The jury in the Phase I trial answered each of the three questions Yes, finding that Western Pocahontas had materially increased the peak flow of surface water from its property, that this increase in peak flow materially caused or contributed to causing the streams in the watershed to overflow their banks, and that Western Pocahontas' use of its land was not reasonable. Western Pocahontas sought relief from the jury's verdict by way of a Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law or For a New Trial. On March 15, 2007, the Panel judge entered an order striking the testimony of appellants' expert witnesses (and a report that they relied upon) and granting Western Pocahontas's Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law, The Panel judge also awarded a conditional grant of Western Pocahontas' Motion For a New Trial under Rule 59 of the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure on six grounds, and ruled that if this Court should reverse the order as to the granting of Western Pocahontas' Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law, then Western Pocahontas nevertheless is entitled to a new trial on all issues. [2] Before this Court, the plaintiffs in the Slab Fork case appeal the Panel judge's March 15, 2007 order. The appellants seek to have the order reversed and vacated in its entirety and seek reinstatement of the jury verdict. Western Pocahontas has cross-appealed in the Slab Fork case, raising issues that we discuss infra.