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In pressing their claims for compensation, miners are at a distinct disadvantage. Most lawyers decline to accept black lung cases because they know that claimants have little chance, says Dr. Mohammed Ranavaya, a West Virginia physician who has examined thousands of black lung patients. "It's not an even playing field, because you have a small-town coal miner vs. a big, resourceful company. It's David and Goliath."
That's just how Albert Perry feels. Like his father and grandfather before him, he went into the mines. Twenty-two years later, he emerged as a man old beyond his years, his frail 112-lb. frame racked with a convulsive cough. Now 55, he is rarely out of reach of an oxygen machine. In his struggle to claim black lung disability, he is no match for Island Creek Coal Co. Perry never finished elementary school. A collector of baseball cards, he enjoys the pictures but cannot read the text. Island Creek has stoutly resisted his claims, arguing that his condition is the result not of working in the mines but rather of years of cigarette smoking. "These companies don't think nothing of you," says Perry. "If you're able to perform, you're all right, but if you're disabled, you're dirt. They'll spend $10,000 to knock you out of a $100 bill."
The lives of Logan County's miners rest in the hands of four dozen state and federal inspectors who police the county's 157 mines. Many of the inspectors are no doubt honest, but corruption runs as deep as the seams of coal. Four years ago, the Labor Department launched a major investigation into bribery at the MSHA's field office in Logan County. The probe has produced some shocking tales. Former coal-company employee Larry Vannatter says he provided an abundance of favors to inspectors when he worked for Logan County mine operator and consultant Phil Nelson. Vannatter says he was told to make sure that federal and state inspectors got whatever they desired: cash, groceries, rifles, tires, even a donation to a local church. The role was a curious one for Vannatter, whose father had been killed in a mining accident three months before Vannatter was born. "My conscience bothered me all along," he says, "but I got two little boys I had to feed."
Federal mine inspector Jack (Black Jack) Massey says his payoffs began when he found a crisp $100 bill under his jacket in the backseat of his car after inspecting one of Nelson's mines. During the next several years, Massey says, Nelson gave him more than $8,000 in cash as well as knives, hams, turkeys and | season tickets to University of West Virginia football games. Massey's job was to inspect for electrical hazards, but instead of citing the mine for violations, he repaired problems and was paid by the mining company for the work. In February 1990 federal agents pressured Nelson to wear a concealed microphone during a conversation with Massey, in which the inspector asked for monthly payments. The following September he pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe.