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Liberty Mutual Insurance last week filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oregon against R.B. Pamplin Corp. and various subsidiaries, including Pacific Northwest Aggregates Inc.
The lawsuit alleges that the companies, which are owned by the industrialist Dr. Robert Pamplin Jr., breached a contract with Liberty Mutual relating to a long-running dispute over mining PNA conducted in Washington more than a decade ago.
As WW previously reported (“Rock Bottom,” WW, June 8, 2022), the Pamplin company allegedly underpaid members of the Yakama Nation for sand and gravel they mined and transported off tribal lands.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs determined in 2013 that PNA owed lease-holders a total of $2.4 million. PNA appealed and asked Liberty Mutual to post bonds for the damages while the appeals proceeded.
In its lawsuit, Liberty Mutual says Pamplin officials failed to respond to communications about the bonds this year. The insurer then demanded Pamplin post $1.1 million in collateral to cover one of the bonds but says Pamplin has not done so.
Pamplin officials could not be reached for comment. The lawsuit follows a Sept. 12 suit by the U.S. Department of Labor against Pamplin and his company. That lawsuit alleged Pamplin violated the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act by intentionally engaging in more than 100 real estate transactions with his company’s pension fund that benefited him and cost unwitting pensioners tens of millions of dollars.