California Seeking To Undo Massey/Alpha Merger

• {West Virginia}...Attorneys for the California State Teachers' Retirement System are trying to undo the merger between Massey Energy and Alpha Natural Resources through a Charleston, West Virginia courtroom. An accident at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine in April 2010 killed 29 miners and cut the company's stock price almost in half. The pension fund lawyers contend the merger, completed June 1st, could keep them from suing the Massey board over allegations company officials tolerated dangerous mining conditions. The West Virginia Supreme Court declined to hear the case earlier this year until it's heard by a lower court. Both sides were told to return in about a month with their own ideas about how the case should proceed.