The Scotia Widows: Inside Their Lawsuit Against Big Daddy Coal | 
 enlarge | Author: Gerald Stern
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 302397
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.6
ISBN: 1400067642
Dewey Decimal Number: 344.730465
EAN: 9781400067640
ASIN: 1400067642
Publication Date: August 26, 2008
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Condition: Hardcover, with dust jacket. Dust jacket has slight shelf wear. Ships the next business day, with tracking and delivery confirmation sent to your email.
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Product Description
On March 9, 1976, a violent explosion, fueled by high concentrations of methane gas and coal dust, ripped through the Scotia mine in the heart of Eastern Kentucky coal country. The blast killed fifteen miners who were working nearly three and a half miles underground; two days later, a second explosion took the lives of eleven rescue workers. For the miners’ surviving family members, the loss of their husbands, fathers, and sons was only the beginning of their nightmare.
In The Scotia Widows, Gerald M. Stern, the groundbreaking litigator and acclaimed author of The Buffalo Creek Disaster, recounts the epic four-year legal struggle waged by the widows in the aftermath of the disaster. Stern shares a story of loss, scandal, and perseverance–and the plaintiffs’ fight for justice against the titanic forces of “Big Daddy Coal.”
Confronted at nearly every turn by a hostile judge and the scorched-earth defense of the Scotia mine’s owners, family members also withstood the opprobrium of some of their neighbors, most of whom relied on coal mining for their livelihoods. Meanwhile, Stern, representing the widows of the disaster on contingency, amassed huge bills and encountered a litany of formidable obstacles. The Eastern Kentucky trial judge withheld disclosure of his own personal financial interest in coal mining, and a popular pro-coal former Kentucky governor served as the lead defense counsel. The judge also suppressed as evidence the federal mine study that pointed to numerous safety violations at the Scotia mine: In a rush to produce more coal, necessary ventilation had been short-circuited, miners had not been trained in the use of self-rescue equipment, and ventilation inspections had not been made. Moreover, Scotia did not even have a trained rescue team. Ultimately, the Scotia widows’ ordeal helped to inspire the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, which changed safety regulations for coal mines throughout the country.
The Scotia Widows portrays in gripping detail young women deciding to pursue a landmark legal campaign against powerful corporate interests and the judge who protected them. It is a critically important and timeless story of ordinary people who took a stand and refused to give up hope for justice.
Praise for The Scotia Widows:
“This is a very scary story, a guided tour of the grinding cogs and spinning wheels inside the machinery of justice. Gerald Stern’s compassionate account of the ordeal of the Scotia widows shows you how horribly out of kilter it can all get when greed and self-interest are at the controls. Only with luck and the expertise of Stern does justice emerge in the end, a bit tarnished but still intact.”
–Jonathan Harr, author of A Civil Action
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| Customer Reviews:
 "Higher Production- Lower Costs." October 11, 2008
The Scotia Widows is a tale of courage in the face of crippling grief, an American tragedy oft repeated in the dangerous jobs of men who daily descend into the earth to provide for their families, high-risk employment to be sure. Miner's families harbor no illusions, but they have every right to expect decent, safe work conditions. This small, powerful book describes the events of March 9, 1976, when fifteen miners are killed in the Scotia Mines in Eastern Kentucky, three and a half miles beneath the surface; two days later, eleven rescue workers are lost in a second explosion. The first explosion, caused by a high concentration of methane gas and coal dust, puts a violent end to the plans of fifteen families, a painful example of the volatility of their environment. And the company bears the burden of this outrage, for specific safety violations, inadequate ventilation, a lack of ventilation inspections and no trained rescue workers on the scene. The question is: will "Big Daddy Coal" accept responsibility or hide behind the warren-like hallways of the legal system.
Stern, a trial attorney with intimate knowledge of such cases, the common man pitted against the intractable juggernaut of wealth and power, goes directly to the heart of the matter, the widows. It is through their stories that the public can identify with the enormity of their loss and the long, brutal path to justice that makes close friends of former strangers united in common cause. Challenging the industry is an enormous task and the Scotia widows and their determined attorney face four years of litigation and tremendous legal hurdles, a hostile judge, the determination of the mine owners, a critical lack of disclosure by a trial judge, a pro-coal lead defense counsel and a bevy of expensive attorneys with limitless pocketbooks. Depending on their legal representation to navigate this treacherous landscape, it is the widows who refuse to back down in spite of setbacks and daunting odds. One result: the landmark Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1976.
It is to Stern's credit that he not only achieves a settlement for the original fifteen widows, but also for a number of the families who lost loved ones in the second explosion that took the lives of rescue workers. Yet, years later, there are more such outrageous accidents in Utah and Kentucky, proving that in spite of progress, this is an industry that flaunts safety for profit, the vast wealth of owners insulating them from worker's demands until such disasters once more claim the imagination of the nation. With this book as testament, the widow's cause is deeply personal, but also transcendent in the battle on behalf of the individual, the widows reclaiming their right to the American dream. Luan Gaines/2008.
 A short book that packs a punch October 1, 2008
In this era when too many people -- especially young people -- disdain the thought of going into law, I can envision students reading this small (145 pages) but mighty book and saying, "I want to be a lawyer!" The story of these women, and their David vs. Goliath battle, deserves to be told around campfires -- and made into a movie.
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