Buckingham slate quarry claims state harassment

Media General News Service
Published: May 9, 2008

A Buckingham County slate quarry has sued the state, alleging harassment by state mine inspectors.

LeSueur-Richmond Slate charged in a complaint filed with Buckingham County Circuit Court that, beginning in November, inspectors with the state Division of Mineral Mining have harassed the company with unwarranted safety inspections.

The company claims:

l The inspectors exceeded their authority under state law in conducting the inspections.

l The state law authorizing the inspections, because it is so broad, violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.

l The mine inspectors exceeded their powers by inspecting a manufacturing plant for slate roofing tile near the quarry.

The Virginia attorney general’s office, representing the mine-safety enforcement agency, has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit on several grounds.

The state argues that the doctrine of sovereign immunity bars the company from suing a state agency. It says the company failed to follow the Virginia Administrative Process Act and Virginia Supreme Court rules by not appealing safety-violation citations issued by the inspectors through an administrative process before resorting to a court challenge.

LeSueur-Richmond Slate’s complaint, filed in mid-April, said that since Nov. 1, state inspectors had entered company property 18 times, “allegedly to investigate three anonymous complaints.” An application for a preliminary injunction to stop the alleged harassment indicated that the company had been cited for more than 30 safety-related violations.

State officials do not routinely inspect the slate quarry because it is subject to inspections by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. However, Virginia law provides for state inspections when safety complaints are received.

Mike Abbott, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, said that four complaints against the company were received by the mineral mining division between Dec. 14 and April 7 and that subsequent inspections uncovered 79 violations.

As part of an administrative appeal of 21 violations resulting from a Jan. 14 inspection, an informal fact-finding hearing was held Wednesday.

In an interview, mine owner Dick Rose said he had no way of knowing who complained about his company. The 130-year-old quarry employs 85 people, Rose said.

A state inspection record filed with the lawsuit indicates that many of the workers interviewed by inspectors were Latinos who could not speak English, and other workers had an American Indian dialect and did not speak Spanish well enough to make themselves understood by a state interpreter.

In an anonymous complaint received by state regulators Dec. 13, the author charged: “The mining company is mishandling explosives ... the person doing this is not certified and illiterate and also he is assisted by illegal Mexicans,” some younger than 15.

A hearing was to be held on the company’s injunction request on May 2, but on May 1 the company filed a motion to amend its filing.

Once the amended complaint is filed, the state will respond, said David Clementson, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.