Anker Energy Corp. v. Consolidation Coal Co.

OPINION OF THE COURT

GREENBERG, Circuit Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

In 1992, Congress enacted the Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act (“Coal Act”), 26 U.S.C. §§ 9701-9722, to ensure that retired coal miners and their dependents would continue to receive the health and death benefits they had been receiving since the 1940s pursuant to a series of collective bargaining agreements. By the late 1980s, problems had arisen that caused serious under-funding to the two benefit plans funding the miners’ benefits. Fearing that the miners and their families would be left with no health or death benefits,…