Itmann Coal Co. v. Miller

• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: HARSHBARGER
• Citation: Itmann Coal Co. v. Miller, 272 S.E.2d 668, 166 W.Va. 84 (W. Va. 1980)
• Decision Date: 09 December 1980
• Docket Number: No. 14619,14619
• Parties: ITMANN COAL CO., etc. v. Walter MILLER, Director, Dept. of Mines, etc. et al., and International Union, District 29 et al., Intervenors.

Page 668

272 S.E.2d 668

166 W.Va. 84

ITMANN COAL CO., etc. v. Walter MILLER, Director, Dept. of Mines, etc. et al and International Union, District 29 et al., Intervenors.

No. 14619.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Dec. 9, 1980.

Syllabus

Mine beltways and beltway entries are parts of a mine as defined in Code, 22-1-1(a)(6), and must be preshift examined as required by Code, 22-2-14.

Chauncey H. Browning, Atty. Gen., Marianne K. Hoover, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charleston, for appellants.

Kendrick King, Beckley, Mary Lu Jordan, Washington, D. C., for intervenors.

Jackson, Kelly, Holt & O'Farrell and C. Lynch Christian, III, Charleston, for appellee.

HARSHBARGER, Justice:

The Department of Mines appeals a decision by the Kanawha County Circuit Court that West Virginia Code, 22-2-1 et seq., does not require preshift examinations by fire bosses of mine beltway entries and beltways.

"Statutes which relate to the same persons or things, or to the same class of persons or things, or statutes which have a common purpose will be regarded in pari materia to assure recognition and implementation of the legislative intent...." Fruehauf Corp. v. Huntington Moving & Storage Co., W.Va., 217 S.E.2d 907 (1975), Syllabus Point 5.

Chapter 22 of the West Virginia Code regulates mining. The Department of Mines is mandated to "give prime consideration to the protection of the safety and health of persons employed within or at the mines of this State." Code, 22-1-2.

The most instructive section is entitled "Safety inspection; removal of gases":

It shall be the duty of the mine foreman, assistant mine foreman or fire boss to examine all working places under his supervision for hazards at least once every two hours during each coal-producing shift, or more often if necessary for safety. In all mines such examinations shall include tests with an approved detector for methane and oxygen deficiency and may also include tests with a permissible flame safety lamp. It shall also be his duty to remove as soon as possible after its discovery and accumulations of explosive or noxious gases in active workings, and where practicable, any accumulations of explosive or noxious gases in the worked out and abandoned portions of the mine. It shall be the duty of the mine foreman, assistant mine foreman or fire boss to examine each mine within three hours prior to the beginning of a shift and before any miner in such shift enters the active workings of the mine. Code, 22-2-14 (Emphasis added).

So it is the duty of the underground mine foreman-fire boss or his assistant ^* to examine each mine within three hours prior to the beginning of a shift. "Mine" is defined at Code, 22-1-1(a)(6):

Mine: The term "mine" includes the shafts, slopes, drifts or inclines connected with, or intended in the future to be connected with, excavations penetrating coal seams or strata, which excavations are ventilated by one general air current or divisions thereof, and connected by one general system of mine haulage over which coal may be delivered to one or more points outside the mine, and the surface structures or equipment connected or associated therewith which contribute directly or indirectly to the mining, preparation or handling of coal, or construction thereof. (Emphasis added.)

A shaft is a "vertical opening through the strata that is or may be used for the purpose of ventilation, drainage, and the hoisting and transportation of men and material, in connection with the mining of coal", Code, 22-1-1(c)(9). A slope is "a plane or incline roadway, usually driven to a coal seam from the surface and used for the same purpose as a shaft", Code, 22-1-1(c)(10). And a drift is defined as "a horizontal or approximately horizontal opening through the strata or in a coal seam and used for the same purposes as a shaft", Code, 22-1-1(c)(3).

Mine beltways are ventilated underground areas of the mine where conveyor belts are located for the transportation of coal from its production situs to points outside the mine. Some belt conveyors transport men as well as coal. Code, 22-2-38(e). The entries are those areas where miners pass to go to the beltline or beltway, where supplies are deposited and frequently where miners take their meals. Beltways therefore are shafts, slopes or drifts, used for...