CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Raleigh County man was awarded $4 million after a federal choose decided a short lived staffing company purposefully failed to assist the particular person safe a job because of their race.

U.S. District Decide Frank Volk of the federal district court docket for West Virginia’s southern district ordered Lightning Contract Companies Inc. and operations supervisor Bennie Milam to pay James Cox over associated damages and legal professional’s charges.

Based on court docket paperwork, Cox, a Black man, started visiting the corporate’s Beckley workplace in March 2014 seeking employment. Cox had 12 years of coal mining expertise and possessed all crucial certifications. Milam knowledgeable Cox there have been no jobs out there on the time.

Cox continued contacting Lightning Contract Companies about positions for greater than two years, through which Milam mentioned a number of occasions there have been no out there positions for Cox. Courtroom paperwork state a lot of Cox’s white coal miner colleagues had been getting work by way of the corporate.

One incident notes Milam telling a white buddy of Cox of labor alternatives. The buddy informed Cox about out there positions within the car parking zone of Lightning Contract Companies, however Milam informed Cox about no open jobs when he re-entered the constructing.

Charles Jamal Hoskins, one other Black man with coal mining expertise, had an identical expertise with Milam and Lightning Contract Companies.

Cox contacted a unique staffing company in January 2017, and the corporate had a job for Cox inside three days.

“Mr. Cox labored for Worldwide Coal Group for roughly one yr, starting in January of 2017,” court docket paperwork state. “He was laid off a yr later in an obvious discount in power. He wouldn’t have been laid off, nevertheless, had he been employed again in 2014 inasmuch as termination is predicated on seniority.”

Cox sought damages for seven years of unemployment. Volk awarded Cox $800,000 in compensatory damages, $3.2 million in punitive damages and $11,025 in legal professional’s charges.

Cox was represented by Mark A. Atkinson of the Charleston regulation agency Atkinson & Polak.