Opinion ID: 762638
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: dixie fuel company & procedural history

Text: 5 Plaintiff-Appellant Dixie Fuel was never a signatory to the UMWA labor agreements referenced in the Act. However, the SSA has deemed Dixie Fuel to be a related company to the V & C Coal Company (V & C), a signatory which is no longer in existence. Since September 1995, the SSA has assigned Dixie Fuel more than fifty beneficiaries who were former employees of V & C and maintains that Dixie Fuel is responsible for these beneficiaries. Dixie Fuel has estimated its current liability based on these assignments at approximately $500,000.00, exclusive of interest and penalties. Almost all of the beneficiaries assigned to Dixie Fuel came from the unassigned pool. 5 6 Dixie Fuel sought SSA review of the assignments, and has made requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to gain information in support of its request. In order to submit further information in support of its challenge to these assignments, Dixie Fuel has requested extensions of time in the review process. 7 On July 30, 1997, Dixie Fuel filed a Verified Claim in the district court for the Eastern District of Kentucky seeking declaratory and injunctive relief voiding these assignments. Contemporaneously, Dixie Fuel filed a motion for a temporary restraining order enjoining the SSA from assigning it any more beneficiaries, requiring the SSA to notify the Combined Fund that assignments to Dixie Fuel are void, and enjoining the SSA from withholding information requested by Dixie Fuel in its FOIA requests. The district court denied all injunctive relief to Dixie Fuel, 6 ruling solely that the agency's interpretation of § 9706(a) as allowing the SSA to assign beneficiaries from the unassigned pool after October 1, 1993, is reasonable and entitled to deference. Dixie Fuel now brings this interlocutory appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1) from the district court's denial of its motion for injunctive relief. 8 At oral argument, the SSA conceded that the particular assignments at issue are void under the Supreme Court's decision in Eastern Enterprises v. Apfel, 524 U.S. 498, 118 S.Ct. 2131, 141 L.Ed.2d 451 (June 25, 1998). The SSA argued that this concession moots the issue before this Court.