## Facts

- In 1966, Jewell and Elsie Rodgers bought a house in the Sharp Subdivision in Hopkins County, Kentucky.
- Their home sat above the East Diamond underground mine, whose coal estate had been severed from the surface estate in 1905, when the surface was woodland.
- Island Creek Coal Company owned (or succeeded to) the mineral estate and began underground mining operations in 1948.
- Island Creek stopped mining directly beneath the Rodgerses’ property in 1971, leaving prior underground workings in place.
- Cimarron Coal Corporation conducted nearby strip-mining operations on other lands within approximately 5,600 to 23,000 feet of the Rodgerses’ home.
- Around the time of the later land movement, Cimarron used explosives as part of its strip-mining work.
- In 1977, the land moved and the Rodgerses’ home suffered structural damage (including cracking) associated with that movement.
- The Rodgerses sued Island Creek and Cimarron, seeking recovery on a strict-liability theory tied to mining-related subsidence and loss of support.
- Cimarron defended in part by arguing its operations were too far away to have caused the damage and that Island Creek’s earlier mining and abandonment caused the harm.
- Island Creek defended in part by arguing it owed no duty to the Rodgerses because the coal was severed in 1905, when residential development of the surface was not contemplated.
- A jury returned a verdict for the Rodgerses, awarding $50,000 in compensatory damages apportioned 50% to Island Creek and 50% to Cimarron, plus $45,000 in punitive damages against Cimarron.
- Island Creek appealed from the judgment entered on the verdict.

## Issues

1. Whether an underground mineral owner/operator owes surface owners an absolute duty of subjacent support, even when the mineral estate was severed while the surface was undeveloped woodland and later became residential.
2. Whether liability for subsidence resulting from removal of subjacent support depends on negligence, or instead is imposed without regard to negligence.
3. Whether the evidence permitted the jury to find Island Creek responsible for part of the loss where another mining operator’s later strip-mining and blasting activity may also have contributed to the land movement.

## Decision

- The Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment against Island Creek.
- The court held Island Creek could be held liable without proof of negligence for subsidence damage tied to removal of subjacent support.
- The court rejected Island Creek’s attempt to avoid responsibility based on the timing and circumstances of the 1905 severance and later residential development.
- The court left intact the jury’s compensatory award and its 50/50 apportionment between Island Creek and Cimarron, and did not disturb the punitive damages assessed against Cimarron.

## Legal Principles

- A surface owner has an absolute right to subjacent support; the mineral owner’s right to mine is subordinate to that right.
- When underground mining removes support and subsidence results, the mineral owner may be held strictly liable; liability is not conditioned on proof of negligent mining practices.
- The duty of support is not defeated merely because the mineral estate was severed when the surface was undeveloped and later changed uses.
- Where the proof supports that more than one actor contributed to the land movement and resulting damage, a factfinder may allocate responsibility among them.

## Conclusion

Island Creek Coal Co. v. Rodgers affirms that, in Kentucky, an underground coal owner that removes subjacent support may be held strictly liable for later subsidence damage to surface owners, even if the coal was severed when the surface was only woodland and homes were built years later; the court affirmed the jury’s allocation of compensatory damages between the deep-mine operator and the nearby strip-mining/blasting operator.


Island Creek Coal Co. v. Rodgers, 644 S.W.2d 339 (1982)