Opinion ID: 583483
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Chapter 11 Trustee

Text: 8 On June 15, 1988, the Birmingham bankruptcy court appointed a chapter 11 trustee. At this point, N.P.'s mining operations ceased completely. According to the bankruptcy court opinion, the chapter 11 trustee testified that: 9 [the] order appointing him trustee also limited his activities to doing little more than receiving and preserving for the estate the proceeds of a $122,000 check from Scott Paper Company on a coal contract. [The chapter 11 trustee] testified that Judge Coleman [the Birmingham bankruptcy judge] was aware of the mounting number of citations from the Commission. He said that he neither corrected the violations cited[ ] (other than what could be done by N.P. Mining employee[ ] Bill Kennedy)[,] appealed the citations, nor paid the penalties because of the limits placed on him by Judge Coleman and the lack of funds in the bankruptcy estate. 10 Alabama Surface Mining Comm'n v. N.P. Mining Co. (In re N.P. Mining), 124 B.R. 846, 847 (Bankr.N.D.Ala.1990). The trustee also engaged in coal brokering to keep the Scott Paper Company contract alive. Judge Coleman did, however, allow as a priority administrative expense the payment of premiums due American Resources for the reclamation bonds that ensured that the actual costs of environmental cleanup would be covered. 11 The bankruptcy court found that during this time, after the mining operations had ceased and while the chapter 11 trustee was administering the estate, the ASMC assessed the estate $1,949,400 in fines. On April 3, 1989, the ASMC filed a Proof of Claim together with a Motion for Payment of Administrative Expense with the bankruptcy court, seeking administrative-expense priority for these fines.