paid, including income and other taxes. The S&P analysis likely will come as welcome news to Republican lawmakers, who last week unveiled a new plan to create more jobs in part by lowering corporate taxes to a top rate of 25%, down from their current 35% level. This week the House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on how overhauling business-tax issues could generate new jobs. As lawmakers on both sides struggle to pay down the federal deficit, Democrats have said tax breaks for certain industries must be repealed to regain the country's fiscal footing. But without the support of a handful of conservative Democrats, a bill eliminating tax breaks for five major oil companies failed to pass the Senate in May. Still, a new report from the liberal nonprofit Citizens for Tax Justice could help Democrats make the case that U.S. companies end up paying far less than 35% in taxes, thanks to a host of industry-specific breaks. A survey of 12 public companies--chosen because they represented a range of industries and all recently had been profitable--found that the dozen businesses reported $171 billion in pre-tax U.S. profits between 2008 and 2010, but paid an effective tax rate of negative 1.5%. Over the three-year period, all but two of the 12 companies had at least one year in which they did not pay taxes despite reporting "substantial pretax U.S. profits in those no-tax years," and eight of the companies reported net tax benefits over the period, the nonprofit's report found. The companies included industrial conglomerate Gehat if the merger was allowed to close, current and former Massey directors and officers would escape liability for breaching their fiduciary duties to the company. But the West Virginia Supreme Court determined that it did not have jurisdiction to issue an injunction or to establish a litigation trust to protect the shareholders' derivative claims on behalf of the company because the case had not yet been heard by a lower court in West Virginia. "The Delaware Court has the benefit of considerable discovery, has been able to review the briefs and has heard extensive argument," the West Virginia justices also noted. Massey had no immediate comment on the West Virginia ruling, while a spokesman for Alpha, which was not party to the West Virginia case, declined to comment. Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Meanwhile, Strine, the Delaware judge, concluded that there was not enough evidence to suggest that the Alpha merger was undervalued, or that Massey directors agreed to the buyout solely to protect themselves from liability for the derivative claims. "We do not live in a perfect world and the ability of human institutions to do full justice will always fall short of the ideal," Strine wrote. "That Massey might be selling to Alpha at a price lower than it would have had the company been better managed is an idea one can embrace without also then concluding that there is a basis to conclude that the merger with Alpha ought to be enjoined." Stuart Grant, an attorney representing plaintiffs in the Delaware case, said Strine's decision was in stark contrast to the record presented in court. "This decision is not only bad for shareholders, it is detrimental to Delaware," Grant said. "The message sent is that if you violate the law as a director, the simple way out is to sell the company. It is decisions like this that will cause Delaware to have a shareholder-unfriendly reputation and drive litigation to other states where shareholders believe they can get a fair shake." In both lawsuits, defendants sought to keep certain information out of the public eye, but unredacted versions of briefs were filed in the Delaware case last week after The Associated Press objected to the censoring of material in previous submissions. On Tuesday, the West Virginia Supreme Court unsealed documents filed in the appeal it heard, but not in filings in Kanawha County Circuit Court. Circuit Judge Charles King said he has scheduled a hearing to consider unsealing the lower court documents for Wednesday. Those filings portray the sale as a secret scheme by Massey to control the internal investigation of the explosion to protect company executives, and an attempt to allow Massey directors to escape liability for the shareholder claims. The documents claim Massey Chairman Bobby Inman struck an undisclosed deal with Alpha Chief Executive Kevin Crutchfield to retai