A West Virginia Supreme Court justice said yesterday that he would not step down from Massey Energy's appeal of a $240 million award in favor of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp. unless another justice does the same.

Justice Larry Starcher said Justice Brent Benjamin, whose 2004 election campaign benefited from more than $3 million in campaign expenditures by Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, should step aside to avoid perceptions of bias plaguing the court.

Those perceptions intensified in January when the court received pictures showing Mr. Blankenship vacationing on the French Riviera with Chief Justice Elliott Maynard in July 2006, when Massey's appeal of a $77 million judgment against it was before the court.

The five-member court reversed that verdict in November. Justices Maynard and Benjamin joined one other judge in ruling for Massey. Justice Starcher and another justice dissented, supporting coal company owner Hugh Caperton, who had sued Massey in 1998, claiming he was defrauded and that Massey interfered with his ability to do business.

After the pictures were filed, Chief Justice Maynard stepped aside from cases involving Massey, and the court agreed to rehear the Caperton case. Justice Starcher, who has accused Mr. Blankenship of "creating a cancer in the affairs of this court," recused himself from the Caperton case, hoping Justice Benjamin would do the same.

He did not. With Justice Maynard not involved, Justice Benjamin became acting chief justice and named replacements for Justices Maynard and Starcher. This month, the court ruled 3-2 in Massey's favor after rehearing the Caperton case, with Justice Benjamin ruling for Massey.

"It seems like that public confidence in the court's decision in the Caperton case is close to zero," Justice Starcher said yesterday in explaining why he wouldn't excuse himself from the Wheeling-Pitt case unless Justice Benjamin steps aside.

A Brooke County, W.Va., court last summer ordered Massey to pay Wheeling-Pitt $240 million for violating terms of a coal supply agreement. David Fawcett, the Pittsburgh attorney representing Wheeling-Pitt, said Justice Benjamin's refusal to step aside "has really put the credibility of the whole court at issue."