Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 559

524US2

Unit: $U94

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514

EASTERN ENTERPRISES v. APFEL

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

Congress responded by passing the Coal Act, a modiﬁed
version of the Coal Commission’s alternative funding plan.
In the Act, Congress purported “to identify persons most
responsible for [1950 and 1974 Beneﬁt Plan] liabilities in
order to stabilize plan funding and allow for the provision of
§ 19142(a)(2), 106 Stat.
health care beneﬁts to . . . retirees.”
3037, note following 26 U. S. C. § 9701; see also 138 Cong. Rec.
34001 (1992) (Conference Report on Coal Act) (explaining
that, under the Coal Act, “those companies which employed
the retirees in question, and thereby beneﬁtted from their
services, will be assigned responsibility for providing the
health care beneﬁts promised in their various collective bar-
gaining agreements”).

The Coal Act merged the 1950 and 1974 Beneﬁt Plans into
a new multiemployer plan called the United Mine Workers
of America Combined Beneﬁt Fund (Combined Fund). See
26 U. S. C. §§ 9702(a)(1), (2).2 The Combined Fund provides
“substantially the same” health beneﬁts to retirees and their
dependents that they were receiving under the 1950 and
1974 Beneﬁt Plans. See §§ 9703(b)(1), (f).
It is ﬁnanced by
annual premiums assessed against “signatory coal opera-
tors,” i. e., coal operators that signed any NBCWA or any
other agreement requiring contributions to the 1950 or 1974
Beneﬁt Plans. See §§ 9701(b)(1), (3); § 9701(c)(1). Any sig-
natory operator who “conducts or derives revenue from any
business activity, whether or not in the coal industry,” may
be liable for those premiums.
§§ 9706(a), 9701(c)(7). Where
a signatory is no longer involved in any business activity,
premiums may be levied against “related person[s],” includ-
ing successors in interest and businesses or corporations
under common control.

§§ 9706(a), 9701(c)(2)(A).

The Commissioner of Social Security (Commissioner) cal-
culates the premiums due from any signatory operator based

2 The Coal Act also established another fund, the 1992 UMWA Beneﬁt

Plan, which is not at issue here. See 26 U. S. C. § 9712.