Two Pittsburgh attorneys whose clients were on the losing end of the West Virginia Supreme Court's decision overturning a $77 million judgment against Massey Energy will appeal the ruling -- and how the court reached it -- to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Yesterday's 3-2 decision echoed the court's November ruling, which sparked allegations of bias and forced the state's highest court to rehear the case without two justices who disqualified themselves because of charges they could not be impartial in cases involving Massey CEO Don Blankenship.

Justice Brent Benjamin, who ruled for Massey in November and again yesterday, refused for a third time yesterday to disqualify himself from the case.

Bruce Stanley and Dave Fawcett, lawyers for Hugh Caperton and Harman Mining, had asked Justice Benjamin to step aside because he benefited from more than $3 million Mr. Blankenship spent during the 2004 Supreme Court election campaign, when Justice Benjamin won his seat on the bench.

Mr. Caperton, his Harman Mining and two other affiliates sued Massey in 1998, claiming they were defrauded and that Massey interfered with their ability to do business.

"We will ask the Supreme Court of the United States to review Justice Benjamin's insistence on deciding this case in favor of Massey," Mr. Stanley and Mr. Fawcett said in a joint statement.

The attorneys said they will also ask the court to review violations of their clients' constitutional rights of due process and equal protection under the law.

Yesterday's ruling will likely fuel further controversy in a court beset with turmoil since January, when Mr. Stanley filed pictures showing Mr. Blankenship vacationing along the Mediterranean Sea in July 2006 with Chief Justice Elliott Maynard.

The chief justice, who is seeking re-election this year, subsequently disqualified himself from the Harman case, which the court unanimously agreed to rehear.

ABC News yesterday claimed Mr. Blankenship threatened to shoot one of its producers attempting to interview him in the company's parking lot, quoting the coal company executive as saying: "If you're going to start taking pictures of me, you're liable to get shot."

Mr. Blankenship said the producer put the camera too close to his face. "I reached up and moved the camera aside a little bit and he took great offense," Mr. Blankenship said.

Justice Benjamin was joined yesterday by Justice Robin Davis and Marion County Circuit Court Judge Fred L. Fox in reversing a 2002 jury verdict ordering Massey to pay $50 million in damages to Mr. Caperton, Harman and the affiliates. The judgment has grown to $77 million because of penalties and interest.

Justice Joseph Albright and Donald Cookman, another circuit court judge, dissented, saying the majority's decision "bends the law."

"The majority consciously chose to decide this case in such a way as to allow wrongdoers to skirt the consequences of their actions," they wrote.

Acting as chief justice after Chief Justice Maynard had stepped aside, Justice Benjamin appointed Judge Cookman to replace Chief Justice Maynard and Judge Fox to replace Justice Larry Starcher. The blunt-spoken Justice Starcher has criticized Mr. Blankenship's political spending and accused the coal executive of creating "a cancer in the affairs of this court."

Last week, Harman's attorneys asked Justice Benjamin for a third time to excuse himself, citing a public opinion poll showing that two-thirds of West Virginians doubted that he could be impartial. Justice Benjamin said the poll is "neither credible nor sufficiently reliable to serve as the basis for an elected judge's disqualification."

The ruling will not likely diminish the controversy surrounding the court as it considers Massey's appeal of $240 million in damages it was ordered to pay Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel last summer.

This week, Massey asked the court to block a hearing Justice Starcher has scheduled Thursday concerning whether he should disqualify himself from hearing the Wheeling-Pitt case. The coal company's attorneys said such a hearing is unprecedented and that Justice Starcher lacks the authority to call it.

"It's very disappointing that Massey wants to stop a public hearing to determine the truth of their claim that I should be recused. I believe in government acting in the sunshine, not in secret," Justice Starcher said in a statement.