Court Opinion

ID: 9844894
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:11:27.566445+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:46.843520
License: Public Domain

NEELY, Justice,
dissenting:
I must respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding in this case. W.Va.Code 22-6-1 [1985], which continues the existence of the Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety, provides in part:
(a)(2) Coal mining is highly specialized, technical and complex ...
(3) During each session of the Legislature, coal mine health and safety standards are proposed which require knowledge and comprehension of scientific and technical data related to coal mining ...
(4) The formulation of appropriate regulations and practices to improve health and safety and provide increased protections of miners can be accomplished more effectively by persons who have experience and competence in coal mining and coal mine health and safety.
As the language of the statute indicates, the legislature recognized that coal mining is a technical and complex enterprise. Accordingly, the promulgation and assessment of coal mine health and safety standards requires specialized technical expertise. The legislature does not possess such expertise, nor does this Court. The legislature has provided, therefore, for a panel of experts in coal mine health and safety to administer health and safety plans. W.Va. Code 22-6-1 et seq. Because the board and its director possess such expertise, the legislature endowed the director with substantial discretion in administering coal mine health and safety plans. W.Va.Code 22A-1A-4 [1985]; Walls v. Miller, 162 W.Va. 563, 251 S.E.2d 491, at 498-99 (1978).
The members of the board are required to evaluate complex technical and geological data pertaining to the roof conditions of individual mines and, in light of their expertise, to approve or disapprove of roof control plans proposed by the operators of individual mines. W. Va. Code 22-6-1, 22A-2-25(a). In light of the expertise and experience of the board'in dealing with issues pertaining to roof control, this Court should be wary of overturning the considered decisions of the board on technical matters.
The evidence before us does not disclose the factors that must be considered in determining the adequacy of a roof control plan for a particular mine. However, even were we provided with a full record containing perfect information, we could not begin to comprehend its import. We simply do not have the requisite training to understand such a highly technical problem. Indeed, we are no more equipped to design or approve roof control plans than the average member of the board is to *72decide an antitrust case. By stepping outside our sphere of competence, we merely expose our incompetence.
Moreover, what evidence there is before us is hardly conclusive. We have before us a plethora of affidavits from operators, miners, and mine safety experts averring that: (1) The conventional and combination roof support plans currently employed in various thin-seam auger mines around the state are adequately safe; (2) implementation of a blanket rule requiring full roof bolting in auger mines would in many cases not increase, and in some cases would decrease, the degree of safety in the mines; and (3) the cause of the fatalities listed in the petition was not the inadequacy of the roof control plan, but the failure to comply with the requirements of an approved plan or the failure to exercise extra precaution for adverse roof conditions as required by an approved plan. Because we are not technical experts, we are ill-equipped to assess the merits of these contentions. Accordingly, we should defer to the considered opinion of our expert board.
W.Va.Code 22A-2-25 [1985] is patterned after and is virtually identical to 30 U.S.C. 862(a) and (b) of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. Pub.L. No. 91-173, 83 Stat. 766 (December 30, 1969). Federal regulations regarding roof control plans appear at 30 C.F.R. Part 75.200 et seq. These regulations are promulgated by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), the federal analog to the West Virginia Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety. In addition to full roof bolting, the federal regulations recognize as adequate both conventional roof control plans, 30 C.F.R. 75.200-8, and combination roof control plans, 30 C.F.R. 75.200-9. There is nothing in the regulations to indicate that the MSHA believes full roof bolting is the only adequate means of roof support in thin-seam mines employing auger-type continuous coal mining equipment. Thus, after considering the available data, the federal government’s panel of mine safety experts has corroborated the opinion of our board — full roof bolting is not the only adequate means of roof support in thin-seam mines employing auger mining techniques. In light of this federal corroboration, we should be even more wary of second-guessing the judgment of the board.
In the face of the conflicting evidence before us, and in spite of our lack of competence to consider this question, the majority rests its decision on a slender reed indeed. In West Virginia there are forty-four thin-seam mines employing auger mining techniques. Nine of these mines employ full roof bolting. The remaining thirty-five employ either conventional roof control or a combination roof control plan. Of these thirty-five mines, sixteen have experienced one roof fall casualty since 1974. None of these mines has experienced more than one roof fall casualty during this period. The remaining nineteen mines have experienced no roof fall casualties during the period.
The majority holds that the fact that casualties have not occurred in full-bolting mines while sixteen such casualties occurred in conventional or combination mines creates the “inescapable inference” that full-bolting is the superior method of roof control. Although the majority may be correct that full-bolting is the superior method, their inference is hardly inescapable. As I mentioned supra, evidence was submitted indicating that the casualties were caused not by flaws in the roof control plan, but by failure to adhere to the requirements of the plan. Neither the petitioners nor the majority make any showing that it was the lack of roof bolting which caused the casualties. Nor do they show how roof bolting would have prevented any of the casualties. Nor do the petitioners or the majority offer any explanation why nineteen mines in this State have operated without a single roof fall casualty in the last twelve years while employing either conventional or combination roof control plans.
Due to our lack of expertise, we simply do not know whether full roof bolting will prevent more miners from losing their lives. However, we do know that today’s decision will cause more miners to lose their jobs. The majority opinion at p. 350 states:
*73We are aware of the concern of the coal operators that their economic interests are involved in this case. This Court will not, however, ignore the loss of life and limb in view of the fact that the statutes place the highest value on the health and safety of the miners.
Although such rhetoric possesses a certain populist appeal, it tells only half of the story. If operators forced to employ full roof bolting can no longer operate their mines, the mines will close and the miners will lose their jobs. At oral argument the courtroom was packed with non-union miners vehemently opposed to the prospect of full roof bolting.
It is implicit in the majority’s opinion that conclusive evidence that full roof bolting is superior to other roof control plans is not necessary; all that is required for us to change current practice is evidence of a possibility that full roof bolting will make mines marginally safer. Yet requiring full roof bolting is not like adding one more footnote to an appellate opinion on the theory that even if it doesn’t help, it can’t hurt. The expense of a footnote never closed a court, but we had ample evidence at oral argument that full roof bolting will close many mines. Coal mining is, indeed, among America’s most dangerous occupations and all reasonable efforts must be made to protect the health and safety of miners. But when our own health and safety board, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, the coal operators, and, most important of all, the miners themselves have concluded, based on extensive experience, that mines without full roof bolts are as safe as those with them, we should not substitute our judgment for theirs.
I am authorized to say that BROTHERTON, J., joins me in this dissent.