Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 576

524US2

Unit: $U94

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Cite as: 524 U. S. 498 (1998)

531

Opinion of O(cid:146)Connor, J.

Eastern employed miners, retirement and health beneﬁts
were far less extensive than under the 1974 NBCWA, were
unvested, and were fully subject to alteration or termination.
Before 1974, as Justice Breyer notes, Eastern could not
have contemplated liability for the provision of lifetime bene-
ﬁts to the widows of deceased miners, see post, at 562–563,
a beneﬁciary class that is likely to be substantial. See Gen-
eral Accounting Ofﬁce, Human Resources Division Report,
Retired Coal Miners’ Health Beneﬁts 7 (July 1992) (reporting
to Congress that widows composed 45% of beneﬁciaries in
Jan. 1992); see also Brief for Petitioner 45, n. 54 (citing afﬁ-
davit that 75% of the beneﬁciaries assigned to Eastern are
spouses or dependent children of miners). Although East-
ern at one time employed the Combined Fund beneﬁciaries
that it has been assigned under the Coal Act, the correlation
between Eastern and its liability to the Combined Fund is
tenuous, and the amount assessed against Eastern resembles
a calculation “made in a vacuum.” See Connolly, supra, at
225. The company’s obligations under the Act depend solely
on its roster of employees some 30 to 50 years before the
statute’s enactment, without any regard to responsibilities
that Eastern accepted under any beneﬁt plan the company
itself adopted.

It is true that Eastern may be able to seek indemniﬁcation
from EACC or Peabody. But although the Act preserves
Eastern’s right to pursue indemniﬁcation, see 26 U. S. C.
§ 9706(f)(6), it does not confer any right of reimbursement.
See also Conference Report on Coal Act, 138 Cong. Rec., at
34004 (explaining that the Coal Act allows parties to “enter
into private litigation to enforce . . . contracts for indemniﬁ-
cation,” but “does not create new private rights of action”).
Moreover, the possibility of indemniﬁcation does not alter
the fact that Eastern has been assessed over $5 million in
Combined Fund premiums and that its liability under the
Coal Act will continue for many years. To the extent that
Eastern may have entered into contractual arrangements to