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The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia has issued abstracts of judgment since April 15 against Lexington for roughly $18.6 million in favor of New York City-based Bluegrass Commodities LP and $1.2 million in favor of London-based Javelin Global Commodities. Both judgments also carry legal interest until paid dating back to November 2024.

An abstract of judgment is a document listing a monetary award issued in favor of a creditor against a debtor.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a final judgment order in favor of Bluegrass and Javelin in November, two months after it granted a summary judgment in their favor.

Bluegrass and Javelin had alleged breach of two contracts related to the marketing and sale of coal Lexington and its affiliates produced, including a contract in which Lexington granted Bluegrass the exclusive right to market and sell thermal coal and a master coal purchase and sale agreement under which Lexington agreed to sell metallurgical coal to Javelin.

Lexington has appealed the final judgment order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Lexington’s Pittsburgh-based attorney Jeffrey Criswell did not respond to a request for comment.

DEP assessed $50K in penalties to Lexington on Monday

Milton-based Lexington has a lengthy history of delinquent environmental and mine safety penalties, having owed over $2.8 million in state environmental penalties as of February, according to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.

The DEP on Monday assessed Lexington a combined $50,400 in civil penalties for failing to obtain a permit renewal in the Twelvepole Creek watershed in Wayne County and not reporting quarterly monitoring well data to the DEP for its Whitetail Complex K-Mine in the Tygart Valley River watershed in Preston County.

MSHA: Lexington delinquent $31K at mine fatality site

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration found Lexington allowed safety failures that caused a fatal mine accident at its Twilight MTR Surface Mine in Boone County in January, according to a report the agency released this month.

Lexington caused the Jan. 29 incident that killed drill operator Steven Fields, 55, per the report.

Fields, of Chauncey, Logan County, died when rock fell from a highwall and struck the cab of the drill he was operating at the nonunion mine, MSHA said in its report.

MSHA found that Lexington failed to:

• Ensure Fields didn’t work under a dangerous highwall
• Ensure hazardous areas were scaled before work was performed
• Sufficiently examine the highwall
• Provide adequate training to Fields

The Twilight mine had been the site of more than 200 safety and health violations issued by MSHA since April 2019 prior to the incident that left Fields dead. Of those violations, over half were categorized by MSHA as Significant and Substantial, a designation the agency uses for hazards reasonably likely to result in serious injury.

Lexington had 19 Significant and Substantial penalties categorized as delinquent on just its Twilight MTR Surface Mine permit as of Tuesday, according to MSHA data. The penalties total over $31,000.

Lexington linked to unpaid medical claims

The West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office lists Lexington’s manager as Jeremy Hoops, son of Jeff Hoops, who stepped down as CEO of mining companies Blackjewel and Revelation Energy LLC as part of a 2019 bankruptcy deal.

In January, the U.S. Department of Labor announced it reached a settlement agreement to resolve over $1.2 million in unpaid medical claims by the Milton-based health care plan for Revelation Energy LLC.

The Department of Labor also announced that it had obtained a consent judgment and order in a West Virginia federal court requiring trustees of Blackjewel’s 401(k) plan to pay $637,014 in restitution. The order followed a federal investigation finding that Hoops and others who had been Blackjewel executives unlawfully diverted employee retirement contributions to pay for company expenses.