Massey Energy Co.'s management will beef up its oversight of mine safety and environmental compliance as part of a deal to settle one of two pending lawsuits against Massey President Don Blankenship and other board members by corporate shareholders.

A Massey board committee will begin more thorough monitoring of safety violations and accidents, more closely examine environmental problems, and mandate reforms in both areas, according to the settlement approved this afternoon by Kanawha Circuit Judge Irene Berger.

Massey will also create new corporate vice presidents for Best Environmental Practices and Best Safety Practices, and issue a new annual "Corporate Social Responsibility Report" to inform shareholders about environmental and worker safety compliance.

The changes build on other environmental compliance reforms Massey is mandated to institute as the result of a landmark Clean Water Act settlement reached earlier this year with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Lawyers who filed the "shareholder derivative" action against Blankenship and other Massey board members said the settlement "provides significant corporate reforms at Massey."

"The terms of the settlement agreed to by Massey will significantly strengthen its compliance controls respecting both environmental laws and regulations, as well as worker safety," the lawyers said in a brief seeking court approval of the settlement.

The case was filed in July 2007 against Blankenship and other Massey board members on behalf of a trust that funds asbestos settlements with former Johns Manville Corp. workers.

Massey Energy Co.'s management will beef up its oversight of mine safety and environmental compliance as part of a deal to settle one of two pending lawsuits against Massey President Don Blankenship and other board members by corporate shareholders.

A Massey board committee will begin more thorough monitoring of safety violations and accidents, more closely examine environmental problems, and mandate reforms in both areas, according to the settlement approved this afternoon by Kanawha Circuit Judge Irene Berger.

Massey will also create new corporate vice presidents for Best Environmental Practices and Best Safety Practices, and issue a new annual "Corporate Social Responsibility Report" to inform shareholders about environmental and worker safety compliance.

The changes build on other environmental compliance reforms Massey is mandated to institute as the result of a landmark Clean Water Act settlement reached earlier this year with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Lawyers who filed the "shareholder derivative" action against Blankenship and other Massey board members said the settlement "provides significant corporate reforms at Massey."

"The terms of the settlement agreed to by Massey will significantly strengthen its compliance controls respecting both environmental laws and regulations, as well as worker safety," the lawyers said in a brief seeking court approval of the settlement.

The case was filed in July 2007 against Blankenship and other Massey board members on behalf of a trust that funds asbestos settlements with former Johns Manville Corp. workers.

The Manville Personal Injury Trust owns about 1,000 shares of Massey stock, according to the suit. The trust was created in 1986 as part of the bankruptcy reorganization of the Johns Manville Corp.

Technically, shareholder derivative suits are filed on behalf of the company by shareholders against corporate managers because of alleged mismanagement of the company.

The suits alleged a "conscious failure" by Massey management "to comply with applicable environmental and worker-safety laws and regulations." It said that failure has "caused and will continue to cause severe injury to the company by consciously ignoring Massey Energy's legal obligations to comply with federal and state law, thereby exposing the company to a substantial threat of monetary liability for violations."

Among other things, the suit cited EPA's lawsuit over repeated violations of water pollution permit limits, hefty fines for the deaths of two miners in the Aracoma Mine fire, and a nearly $2 million verdict against Massey for firing a worker who complained about safety problems.

A previous shareholder suit against Massey management was settled in December 2005, and a third suit is currently pending in U.S. District Court in Charleston.

As part of the settlement with the Manville Trust, the defendants will pay the trust's lawyers $2.7 million in fees and expenses, according to the proposed settlement. The trust was represented in the case by the South Carolina firm of Motley Rice, whose founder, Ronald L. Motley, was among the first lawyers to take on the asbestos industry, and by the Delaware firm Rigrodsky & Long, which specializes in shareholder suits. Local counsel for the trust was former Kanawha Circuit Judge Andrew MacQueen.

The proposed settlement was filed in May, and Kanawha Circuit Judge Irene Berger has scheduled a hearing this afternoon to consider approval of the deal.