BECKLEY, W.Va. -- Hugh Caperton is the solitary occupant of the spartan, dimly lit offices of Harman Development, located across Prince Street from the courthouse in this southern West Virginia town. His only companions are a few pictures of family and piles of papers neatly stacked on a conference table.

The papers -- only a small part of thousands of pages of depositions, company records, trial transcripts, motions and rulings -- document his battle with Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, one of the state's most powerful businessmen.

Mr. Caperton, 54, bought Harman, a Grundy, Va., mine, in 1993 and built it into an 800,000-ton per-year coal producer that employed 150 people. His allegations that Massey and Mr. Blankenship drove Harman into bankruptcy in 1998 sparked a protracted legal fight waged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It's been horrible. I've lost my career over this ... the prime years of my life," says Mr. Caperton, whose family traces its coal roots back to its ownership of a small mine in nearby Slab Fork that closed in 1981.

He's cashed life insurance policies and tapped retirement and other savings as well as turned to family members to support his wife and two daughters. Mr. Caperton also earned income as the court-appointed administrator of Harman.

He had other problems: a 2002 fire that put his family out of their home for six months and a 2007 fall from a ladder that broke bones in his back and foot. When doctors performed a CT scan to check for internal injuries from the fall, they found a cancerous tumor on Mr. Caperton's kidney.

"It was an ugly few weeks," he says, adding that the tumor was successfully removed after he recovered from the fall.

Twelve years after his troubles began, Mr. Caperton's courtroom days may be nearing an end.

On Tuesday, West Virginia's Supreme Court considers Caperton v. Massey for a third time. The five-member court will hear arguments about whether to affirm a 2002 jury verdict ordering Massey to pay Mr. Caperton and Harman $50 million in damages.

Two previous times, the state's highest court overturned the verdict by 3-2 votes, drawing national headlines and fueling concern that escalating contributions to judicial candidates are threatening the integrity of the court system. A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court echoed those concerns, ordering West Virginia's Supreme Court to rehear the case without the judge whose involvement tainted the decision.

Mr. Caperton, a cousin of former West Virginia Gov. Gaston Caperton, has had trouble maintaining his optimistic nature over the last few months. Nevertheless, he hopes the third time will be the charm.

"To this point, it's worked," he says of America's legal system. "In a crazy way, it's worked. Hopefully, in the end it will work."

West Virginia's highest court will take up the case without Justice Brent Benjamin, one of three justices whose impartiality was questioned. The Charleston lawyer was elected in 2004 after Mr. Blankenship spent $3 million on the election, most of it targeting the defeat of the incumbent justice who was opposed by Mr. Benjamin.

Three times, Mr. Caperton's Pittsburgh attorneys asked Justice Benjamin to recuse himself, arguing that Mr. Blankenship's campaign spending raised doubts about whether the justice could be impartial. Three times, Justice Benjamin declined.

Mr. Caperton's attorneys also sought the recusal of former Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard, a longtime friend of Mr. Blankenship. Justice Maynard stepped aside in January 2008 after one of Mr. Caperton's attorneys filed pictures with the court showing the justice vacationing with Mr. Blankenship on the Riviera while the Harman case was before the court. Justice Maynard failed to win re-election last year.

Meanwhile, Mr. Blankenship also wanted Justice Larry Starcher to recuse himself because of critical remarks the judge made about the coal company executive. Justice Starcher recused himself prior to the second Harman hearing. But he did not go quietly.

"The pernicious effects of Mr. Blankenship's bestowal of his personal wealth and friendship have created a cancer in the affairs of this court," he wrote in a 10-page statement.

After Justice Benjamin and two other justices sided with Massey in April 2008 and overturned the $50 million verdict a second time, Mr. Caperton and Harman appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The appeal was based on their long-standing contention that Justice Benjamin should have recused himself because of Mr. Blankenship's campaign expenditures.

In June, the high court's 5-4 decision established the legal precedent that judges should step aside from cases involving campaign contributors when the size of the contribution creates the risk that the judge's impartiality could be questioned. It sent the case back to West Virginia's Supreme Court.

"I truly didn't see the significance of what we were doing until I walked into the Supreme Court building. Then it hit me," Mr. Caperton recalls. "This is going to restore confidence in the judiciary in the United States. I'm confident it will."

In a statement issued after the decision, Mr. Blankenship said he hoped the ruling "will not silence others from speaking out when change is needed.

"I contributed my time, my energy and yes, my money to oppose a candidate I disagreed with personally and politically," his statement said. "I remain optimistic about the outcome of the Harman case as it heads back to West Virginia."

Calls to Massey seeking comment were not returned.

The constitutional issue resolved, Mr. Caperton's case now centers on issues relating to his 1998 lawsuit, triggered by a chain of events the previous year.

In 1997, Harman sold its coal reserves to Penn Virginia Corp. to generate cash to pay for a new ventilation system at the mine. Harman then leased the reserves back, mined the coal and paid Penn Virginia royalties based on production.

That same year, Harman renegotiated a long-term supply contract with Wellmore Coal, which purchased most of Harman's coal and sold it to LTV Steel's coke plant in Hazelwood. The new contract raised the price Wellmore paid Harman by about $3 per ton.

It also contained clauses specifying that disputes over the contract would be heard in Virginia courts and allowing Harman and Wellmore to declare "force majeure." That meant either company would not be bound by the contract if forces beyond its control -- typically acts of God, riots, labor disputes, fires and similar events -- prevented it from fulfilling its obligations.

Eleven days after LTV announced it intended to close the Pittsburgh plant, Massey purchased Wellmore on July 31, 1997, and assumed the contract requiring Wellmore to buy Harman's coal. Five days later, Massey-owned Wellmore warned Harman it might invoke force majeure based on LTV's decision.

Mr. Caperton wasn't alarmed by the developments because Harman's contract wasn't predicated on Wellmore selling Harman's coal specifically to LTV. The coal could go to other customers, as well. He thought the warning about not buying as much coal from Harman might be Massey's way of saying it wasn't happy about paying $3 more and wanted to revise the renegotiated agreement.

Wellmore subsequently lost the LTV business and declared force majeure in December. Instead of buying a minimum of 573,000 tons annually as the contract required, Wellmore said it would purchase only 206,000 tons.

Mr. Caperton protested Massey's interpretation of the contract. He says Mr. Blankenship's response was, "We don't want to take this to court. ... We'll tie this up for years."

At the conclusion of the 2002 trial, Circuit Court Judge Jay Hoke wrote that Massey didn't try to void the contract until it lost the LTV business, "a declaration which Massey knew would put Harman out of business."

"Massey acknowledged Wellmore was readily able to purchase and sell the Harman coal, but instead chose to have Wellmore declare 'force majeure' based upon a cost benefit analysis Massey performed which indicated it would increase its profits by doing so," the judge wrote.

Coming at the end of the year, after other coal buyers already had negotiated supply contracts for the next year and beyond, Harman had a difficult time finding buyers to replace Wellmore. As layoffs mounted and its financial condition deteriorated, Mr. Caperton entered negotiations to sell Harman to Massey.

"We knew who we were dealing with, but we were trying to figure the best way out of a difficult situation. We didn't have any other options," he said.

According to trial testimony, Massey said it would assume Harman's lease with Penn Virginia, then demanded last-minute changes that the land company would not agree to. When that happened, Massey terminated plans to purchase Harman in March 1998. Harman and Mr. Caperton filed for bankruptcy two months later.

Harman sued Massey in Virginia courts for breaching the Wellmore contract and eventually was awarded $6 million in damages. Mr. Caperton also consulted David Fawcett, of law firm Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, who recommended that he sue Massey in West Virginia for fraudulently interfering with Harman's business.

Following Harman's victory at the 2002 trial, Massey appealed to West Virginia's Supreme Court. The court's decision overturning the $50 million verdict was based largely on the majority's conclusion that Harman's lawsuit against Massey in Virginia precluded it from suing Massey in West Virginia.

Mr. Caperton said his claims in West Virginia were entirely different from the narrow breach of contract suit he won in Virginia.

"This was a scheme to drive Harman out of business," Mr. Caperton says. "It's all documented with their documents, not ours."

Prevailing on the third try in West Virginia's Supreme Court wouldn't be a financial windfall for Mr. Caperton.

He had guaranteed some of Harman's obligations, putting him on the hook for those debts when Harman filed for bankruptcy. Other creditors include retired union miners collecting health benefits from an industry fund financed by other coal operators. Harman will reimburse the fund if the verdict is upheld.

Mr. Caperton "has been very straight up about this. He's not tried to run away from that," said United Mine Workers union President Cecil Roberts.

Since 2002, the value of the $50 million verdict has grown to an estimated $85 million based on costs and interest. If Mr. Caperton wins, a federal bankruptcy judge in Virginia must approve how that money is distributed.

"Even if we recover everything in this lawsuit, the claims of creditors exceed the damages," says Mr. Fawcett, Mr. Caperton's attorney. "The bulk of it goes to retiree liabilities and payment of other people who were hurt when Harman was put out of business."

About 40 percent of the $85 million would pay for 12 years of legal bills, including payment to Mr. Fawcett and Bruce Stanley, the Reed Smith attorney who represents Harman. Mr. Caperton estimated the UMW claims at about $30 million. There there's Harman's suppliers and other creditors, as well as the costs of reclaiming the Harman mine.

"It ain't going to make me wealthy," Mr. Caperton says.

He has tried but failed to get a job in the coal industry over the past 12 years. Coal mining is all he's known since growing up in Slab Fork and walking past the coal tipple of his family's mine on the way to school.

"I'm ready to go be productive again. Hopefully, I will find a job back in the industry," he says. "I'm not worried about me. I'm a smart guy, educated. I'll figure something out."

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