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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 27, 1992                   TAG: 9202270056
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

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HIGH COURT SENDS BACK CASE AGAINST UMW

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously refused to review an appellate decision that reinstated a $1 billion federal lawsuit against the United Mine Workers.

The 9-0 decision, entered Monday, was in the case of the so-called "Forgotten 400," a group of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia miners who say the UMW discriminated against them. The ruling means the case likely will go back to U.S. District Court in Pikeville, Ky., where it began four years ago.

The miners say the union wronged them in a 1984 strike settlement with A.T. Massey Coal Co. They claim they were denied money from a $4.47 million settlement because they refused to engage in picket-line violence at the Leslie and McInnes mines in Pike County.

A U.S. district judge threw the suit out for lack of evidence. But the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last May that the judge had erred.

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