Holland v. Keenan Trucking Co.Holland v. Keenan Trucking Co.
Case Information
*1 Bеfore WILKINSON, Chief Judge, and WIDENER and WILKINS, Circuit Judges. _________________________________________________________________ *2 Affirmed by published opinion. Chief Judge Wilkinson wrote the opinion, in which Judge Widener and Judge Wilkins joined. _________________________________________________________________ COUNSEL
ARGUED: Walter Scott Evans, HOLROYD & YOST, Charleston, West Virginia, for Appellants. Peter Buscemi, MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., for Appellees. Sushma Soni, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Intervenor. ON BRIEF: Freder- ick P. Holroyd, II, HOLROYD & YOST, Charleston, West Virginia, for Appellants. David W. Allen, Office of the General Counsel, UMWA HEALTH AND RETIREMENT FUNDS, Washington, D.C.; John R. Mooney, Marilyn L. Baker, MOONEY, GREEN, BAKER, GIBSON & SAINDON, P.C., Washington, D.C., for Appellees. Frank W. Hunger, Assistant Attorney General, Rebecca Aline Betts, United States Attorney, Douglas N. Letter, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Wаsh- ington, D.C., for Intervenor.
_________________________________________________________________ OPINION
WILKINSON, Chief Judge:
Appellants, Darrell Keenan and various businesses owned by him
and his wife Janet, appeal the district court's grant of summary judg-
ment to the Trustees of the United Mine Workers of America Com-
bined Benefit Fund ("1992 Plan") in a suit brought to collect unpaid
premiums. Appellants contest their liability to the 1992 Plan on sev-
eral grounds. Initially, appellants argue that the Coal Industry Retiree
Health Benefit Act of 1992,
I.
The provision of health benefits for retired coal mine workers and their dependents has been a divisive issue in the history of labor- management relations in the coal industry. In 1946, the United Mine Workers of America ("UMWA") instituted a nationwide strike over the coal operators' refusal to create a fund to provide miners with health and retirement benefits. The effects of the strike on the national economy led President Truman to nationalize the coal mines and order the Secretary of Labor to negotiate an agreement that would return the miners to work. The mines revertеd to private control in 1947. The terms and con- ditions of miner health and retirement benefits were thereafter deter- mined in a series of National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreements ("NBCWAs") between the UMWA, members of the Bituminous Coal Operators' Association, and other coal operators who agreed to be bound by the national wage agreements. The 1950 NBCWA was par- ticularly significant because it established the United Mine Workers Welfare and Retirement Fund of 1950 ("1950 UMWA Plan"), a pri- vate multiemployer benefit plan funded by signatory coal operators who agreed to contribute on a per-ton royalty basis at rates specified in successive NBCWAs or amendments.
In the years that followed, the 1950 UMWA Plan and the subse- quently created 1974 UMWA Plan greatly expanded the scope of medical benefits and other services available to retired miners. The Plans began to show signs of financial distress, however, due to a combination of demographic and economic changes in the late 1970s. Plan revenues dropped substantially аs many coal operators went out of business or switched to non-union labor. At the same time, health care costs rose dramatically. The problem was further exacerbated by the aging of the beneficiary population.
These changes again produced intense labor-management strife over the issue of retiree benefits, culminating in a 111-day strike in *4 1978. Negotiations led to the 1978 NBCWA, which made several sig- nificant changes in the administration of the UMWA benefit plans. For example, the 1978 NBCWA provided that the rеsponsibility for funding benefits for "orphaned" retirees -- retirees whose last employer went out of business or otherwise ceased contributing to the UMWA benefit plans -- would remain with the 1974 UMWA Plan. The orphaned retiree problem greatly increased the financial strain on the 1974 UMWA Plan. As more coal operators went out of business, the 1974 UMWA Plan was left with more orphaned retirees and a smaller funding base to provide for those beneficiaries.
By the late 1980s, the UMWA Plans were facing insolvency, and once again the issuе of continued, stable funding for retiree benefits contributed to protracted labor unrest. In 1989, mine workers went on an eleven-month strike against the Pittston Coal Company, which ended only after the Secretary of Labor intervened and brokered a set- tlement of the dispute. In an effort to preempt future problems like the one at Pittston, the Secretary established the Advisory Commission on Mine Workers Retiree Health Benefits ("Coal Commission"), a bipar- tisan commission charged with assessing the financial prospеcts of the UMWA health benefit plans and formulating recommendations to ensure their long term viability. The Coal Commission concluded:
(1) that retired miners are entitled to health care benefits that
were promised them and that such commitments must be
honored; (2) that a statutory obligation to contribute to the
trusts should be imposed on current and former signatories
to NBCWAs; and (3) that mechanisms should be enacted to
prevent the future dumping of retiree health care costs on
the UMWA Trusts.
Davon, Inc. v. Shalala,
Among the provisions of the Act was the establishment of the 1992
Plan to provide health benefits to retirees who were eligible but not
yet covered under previous UMWA benefit plans, and who were not
receiving benefits directly from their former employers.
Benefits paid by the 1992 Plan are funded through premiums paid
by "1988 last signatory operators." A "1988 last signatory operator"
is a coal operator who signed the 1988 NBCWA and was the most
recent coal industry employer of an eligible beneficiary.
In order to ensure that coal operators would not be able to avoid
their obligations to the 1992 Plan, Congress provided that "any related
person" to an operator obligated to make payments to the Plan would
be jointly and severally liable for those obligations.
On December 21, 1993, the Trustees of the 1992 Plan brought a civil enforcement action to collect premiums owed to the Plan by West Virginia coal operator First Big Mountain. Because First Big Mountain was in bankruptcy proceedings, the Trustees filed suit against several West Virginia corporations owned by the president and 100 percent owner of First Big Mountain, Darrell Keenan, and his wife, Janet Keenan. The Trustees alleged that these corporations were "related persons" under the Coal Act and were therefore jointly and severally liable for premiums owed by First Big Mountain to the Plan. In ruling for the Trustees, the district court declined to accept the defendants' various objections to the payment of premiums. Specifi- cally, the district court upheld the constitutionality of the Coal Act, *6 held that the defendants were all "related persons" to First Big Moun- tain under that Act, and rejected the argument that Darrell Keenan and Keenan Trucking were released from liability under the Act by a pre- vious settlement with the old UMWA plans. The court found that the Trustees were entitled to interest, liquidated damages, reasonable attorneys fees, and costs in addition to an award of annual prefunding and monthly per beneficiary premiums owed to the 1992 Plan. This appeal followed.
II.
We turn first tо appellants' contention that the Coal Act violates
the Fifth Amendment. It is difficult to exaggerate the burden that
appellants must overcome to carry the day on this argument. Congress
enacted the Coal Act in response to a history of labor disputes which
had significant effects on interstate commerce. Recognizing the vital
importance of stable coal production to the national economy, Con-
gress acted to head off further disputes by guaranteeing the stability
of retired cоal workers' benefits. Thus, the Coal Act emerges as "a
classic example of an economic regulation -- a legislative effort to
structure and accommodate `the burdens and benefits of economic
life.'" Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Envtl. Study Group, Inc., 438 U.S.
59, 83 (1978) (citation omitted).
When, as with the Coal Act, Congress legislates within the core of
its commerce power to regulate economic matters, such legislation
carries a heavy presumption of validity. As the Supreme Court has
stated, "It is by now well established that legislative Acts adjusting
the burdens and benefits of economic life come to the Court with a
presumption of constitutionality . . . ." Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Min-
ing Co.,
[I]t may be that the liability imposed by the Act . . . was not anticipated at the time of actual employment. But our cases are clear that legislation readjusting rights and burdens is not unlawful solely because it upsets otherwise settled expectations. This is true even though the effect of the legis- lation is to impose a new duty or liability based on past acts.
Id. at 637 (citations omitted). While the Court has cautioned that
"[t]he retrospective aspects of legislation, as well as the prospective
aspects, must meet the test of due process," Turner Elkhorn, 428 U.S.
at 17, it has likewise made clear that the "strong deference aсcorded
legislation in the field of national economic policy is no less applica-
ble when that legislation is applied retroactively." Gray,
We also have no difficulty in concluding that the Coal Act employs
rational means to achieve its purpose. The group Congress identified
to fund the 1992 Plan consists of the employers who profited from the
labor of the beneficiaries of the Plan. "When viewed in this light, it
would have been irrational to draw the line anywhere other than"
NBCWA signatories. Davon,
Appellants Darrell Keenan and Keenan Trucking argue that the Trustees of the 1992 Plan are estopped from bringing suit against them because of a settlement in a prior lawsuit between themselves and the Trustees of the 1950 and 1974 UMWA Benefit Plans. The settlement released Keenan Trucking and Darrell Keenan from future liability to those plans. Keenan and Keenan Trucking argue that the settlement should act as а release from liability to the 1992 Plan because both suits were brought to recover premiums used to fund benefits for retired coal workers.
We are unpersuaded. As appellants concede, neither the 1992 Plan nor its Trustees were parties to this previous settlement. They there- fore cannot be legally bound by its terms. Moreover, they could not possibly have been parties to the settlement because it was executed, and the action dismissed, before Congress had even passed the Coal Act. In addition, appellants provide no legal authority for the proposi- tion that a contract between private parties can relieve one of them from statutory obligations such as those imposed by the Coal Act. Indeed, the Supreme Court has held to the contrary:
Contracts, however express, cannot fetter the constitutional authority of Congress. Contracts may create rights of prop- erty, but when contracts deal with a subject matter which lies within the control of Congress, they have а congenital infirmity. Parties cannot remove their transactions from the reach of dominant constitutional power by making contracts about them.
Concrete Pipe,
Lastly, two of the appellants, Keenan Trucking and Cedar Truck- ing, argue that they are not proper parties to this suit because they are not "related persons" with regard to First Big Mountain. Under sec- tion 9712(d)(4) of the Coal Act, a person who is"related" to a coal operator who owes premiums to the 1992 Plan is jointly and severally liable for those prеmiums. Thus, Congress acted to secure stable fund- ing for the Plan by ensuring that coal operators would be unable to evade their responsibilities to the Plan by going out of business or declaring bankruptcy.
Under
(2) Brother-sister controlled group. -- Two or more cor-
porations if 5 or fewer persons who are individuals, estates,
or trusts own (within the meaning of subsection (d)(2)) stock
possessing --
(A) at least 80 percent of the total combined vot-
ing power of all classes of stock entitled to vote or
at least 80 percent of the total value of shares of
all classes of the stock of each corporation, and
(B) more than 50 percent of the total combined
voting power of all classes of stock entitled to vote
*12
or more than 50 percent of the total value of shares
of all classes of stock of each corporation, taking
into account the stock ownership of each such per-
son only to the extent such stock ownership is
identicаl with respect to each such corporation.
Appellants in this case demonstrate a high degree of interrelated- ness. First Big Mountain has been owned entirely by Darrell Keenan since its incorporation. Darrell Keenan and his wife, Janet Keenan, have each owned 50 percent of Keenan Trucking at all times relevant to this suit. Cedar Trucking has been 100 percent owned by Janet Keenan since its incorporation. Appellants argue nonetheless that since Darrell Keenan doеs not own "more than 50 percent" of either Keenan Trucking or Cedar Trucking and since Janet Keenan has no ownership interest in First Big Mountain, those entities may not be considered part of a brother-sister controlled group or related persons under the Coal Act.
This argument might prevail, were it not for the spousal attribution
rule regarding stock ownership found at
V.
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
AFFIRMED