Massey Energy director resigns ahead of AGM

April 20 (Reuters) - U.S. coal miner Massey Energy Co MEE.N said director Lady Barbara Thomas Judge has resigned from the company's board, without citing a reason.

Massey Energy disclosed Judge's resignation, which comes ahead of the company's annual meeting next month, in a brief regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late on Monday.

The company has come under fire from U.S. President Barack Obama and some investors for the deadliest mine accident in nearly 40 years, which killed 29 miners earlier this month. Massey Energy has rejected suggestions that the explosion at the West Virginia mine was due to a disregard for safety. [ID:nN14164105]

Massey's filing comes three weeks after an investor group said it would oppose Judge's election if she was listed as a director in the company's upcoming proxy statement.

In a letter to Massey Energy on March 31, before the mine accident, CtW Investment Group, which owns less than 1 percent of Massey's stock, said it would vote against Judge's election at the 2010 annual meeting that is scheduled to take place on May 18.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Erica Billingham)