According to legal journal the West Virginia Record, Cory Lipscomb has named Vindex Energy and MineTemp Services as defendants in a lawsuit filed on August 23 in Monongalia Circuit Court.

Lipscomb was a roof bolter at Vindex’s Bismark underground operation.

He has filed the lawsuit on grounds the two firms showed disregard for employee and contractor safety by allowing a red hat miner to perform a task that endangered himself and others.

Lipscomb, who was placed at the operation by MineTemp, claimed in the suit documentation that he encountered wet and muddy conditions while working August 30, 2011, which made equipment operation difficult.

The Record said that due to a wet, muddy floor in the mine’s No. 9 entry, the roof-bolting unit that Lipscomb and a co-worker were operating had to be pushed into place by a scoop so that roof supports could be installed in the entry.

When the bolter needed to be moved to the mine’s No. 5 entry near the end of his shift, the unit again became stuck, and a red hat apprentice miner was instructed to operate a scoop to tram the bolter to the location.

Lipscomb claims in the suit that after setting a tow chain, a cable became pinched during movement, so he went to free it once the scoop was stationary. He said that without warning, the red hat – whom he called “untrained, unskilled and unsupervised” – resumed movement without ensuring he was in a safe location, crushing him between the bolter’s frame and the rib.

The Record did not indicate the total damages the miner was seeking, but said he had claimed severe, permanently disabling injuries - including multiple pelvis and hip fractures as well as a bladder rupture - and wanted compensatory and punitive damages with pre and post-judgment interest.

The plaintiff is being represented by D Blake Carter Jr. The Monongalia Circuit Court case number is 12-C-558.