U.S. District Judge Dee Benson on Monday said published reports about a labor dispute at C.W. Mining Co. by The Militant, UMWA, and Jobs With Justice may have defamed the company and been malicious under the law.

None of the groups sought the company out to offer it a chance to rebut the accusations in their reports, Benson said.

The judge also dismissed from the lawsuit a group of 15 individual miners named as defendants, saying they were entitled to their opinions whether in the midst of a labor dispute or not.

Some 75 miners, most of them Latino, said they were locked out of the Co-op Mine near Huntington in Emery County in 2003 after talking about organizing to negotiate better pay and working conditions.

The company claims it fired one of its coal miners for refusing to sign a form acknowledging a failure to perform his duties adequately and the rest of the miners left their jobs in sympathy.

The company said they were never locked out.

Benson dismissed The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News from the litigation in February, elaborating on his reasons for doing so in Monday's opinion.

The judge said the lawsuit's allegations fell "far short" of what is required to prove defamation. Dee said the newspapers attributed disputed statements to the miners, offered the company a chance to comment, and that no reasonable reader would conclude the newspapers had intentionally attacked the company's reputation.

"Rather, their complaint seeks to punish the Salt Lake Tribune for publishing any opinions that differ from their own," wrote Benson, who has ordered the company to pay The Tribune's attorney fees.

The miners returned to work last July after a deal was brokered by the National Labor Relations Board.

The company admitted no wrongdoing and the miners will decide what union, if any, will represent them.