Opinion ID: 6929869
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Statutory History of the Federal ■ Black Lung Benefits Program

Text: The question whether Elliot is a responsible operator within the meaning of the statute and regulations, and so liable for payment of any black lung benefits its former miners are entitled to, requires some preliminary consideration of the statutory history of the federal black lung benefits program. We begin with the 1969 act and its amendments. This Court set forth the legislative history of the federal black lung benefits program in detail in Helen Mining Co. v. Director, OWCP, 924 F.2d 1269, 1271-73 (3d Cir.1991). We repeat here only so much of that history as is essential to an understanding of this case. The black lung program stems from Title IV of the Federal Coal Mine Health & Safety Act of 1969, Pub.L. No. 91-173, 83 Stat. 742 (1969) (the “1969 Act”) (effective December 30, 1969). 14 Congress enacted Title IV because it recognized the economic and social problems that the many coal miners and their families who were seriously affected by pneumoconiosis suffered. Pneumoconiosis is a deadly respiratory disease peculiar to coal miners, popularly known as black lung disease. Congress created the black lung program because it felt that the states had failed to adopt programs adequate to alleviate the suffering among miners disabled by black lung disease and the destitution visited on their dependents. See generally Allen R. Prunty & Mark E. Solomons, The Federal Black Lung Program: Its Evolution and Current Issues, 91 W.Va.L.Rev. 666 (1989). Initially, benefits were paid from public funds, but Congress thought that responsibility for the benefits many would claim would in due course be taken over by the states under improved state black lung programs Congress hoped the 1969 Act would encourage. Thus, under Part B of the 1969 Act, claims filed on or before December 31, 1972 were to be processed by the Social Security Administration (“Social Security”) and paid from the federal fisc. DOL was to handle all claims for black lung benefits filed “on and after January 1, 1973.” They were called Part C claims. Kovalchick’s claim is a Part C claim. In 1969 Congress assumed that it would be paid from state or private funds in accord with the yet to be enacted “adequate” state workers’ compensation statutes Congress expected to spring up to meet the perceived serious problems of death, disability and destitution in the nation’s coal towns. If a particular state’s program proved inadequate under DOL regulations, DOL was directed to instruct the mine operators who had employed the afflicted miner, or their successors, that they were to pay or be responsible for benefits due that state’s coal miners. If the operator who had employed the miner or a successor could not pay or be found, then the federal government was to secure the claim. Pub.L. No. 91-173, §§ 411(a), 422(a)-(d), 83 Stat. 742, 796 (codi-fled at 30 U.S.C.A. § 921(a), 932(a)-(d) (1970)). The 1969 Act created several presumptions to aid claimants in establishing entitlement, but the black lung program soon came under fire because many former miners were unable to secure evidence of employment in the nation’s coal mines for a long enough time to meet presumptive standards on the cause and presence of disabling pneumoconiosis. See S.Rep. No. 743, 92d Cong., 2d Sess., reprinted in 1972 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2305, 2313-20. These criticisms resulted in the first of three sets of amendments. The Black Lung Benefits Act of 1972, Pub.L. No. 92-303, 86 Stat. 150 (1972) (the “1972 Act”), liberalized eligibility criteria, expanded the scope of coverage, extended the government’s responsibility for payment of benefits by continuing coverage under Part B to June 30, 1973, and continued Part C in existence until December 30, 1981. It was made retroactively effective to December 30, 1969. Pub.L. No. 92-303, § 3(c). It failed, however, to halt criticisms from either the miners and their partisans or the coal companies. Thus, on March 1, 1978, Congress enacted the Black Lung Benefits Reform Act of 1977, Pub.L. No. 95-239, 92 Stat. 95 (1978) (codified at 30 U.S.C.A. §§ 901 et seq.) (the “Reform Act”) (effective March 1, 1978). The Reform Act again liberalized the standards for entitlement and continued Part C indefinitely. See Helen Mining Co., 924 F.2d at 1272. Under the Reform Act, Social Security and DOL were told to review all 1973 claims still pending or previously denied and apply the Reform Act’s liberalized standards to them. Pub.L. No. 95-239 § 15, 92 Stat. 103-04; see also Republic Steel Corp. v. United States Dep’t of Labor, 590 F.2d 77, 79 (3d Cir.1978). Recognizing the economic problem this could create for the coal companies that had once employed these men, Congress created a new means of securing payment for some of the revived and pending Part C claims in a related act, The Black Lung Benefits Revenue Act of 1977, Pub.L. No. 95-227, 92 Stat. 11 (1978) (codified at 26 U.S.C.A. § 4121 et seq.) (the “Revenue Act”) (effective March 1, 1978). The Revenue Act created the Trust Fund. Pub.L. No. 95-227 § 3, 92 Stat. 12. The Trust Fund, financed by an excise tax on each ton of coal mined and sold after March 31,1978, was to pay the continuing administrative costs of the black lung benefits program, cover the federal government’s existing Part C liability for benefits attributable to mine operators who could not pay or be found, 15 and “assume responsibility for paying black lung benefits where a miner’s last employment in the industry ceased before January 1, 1970, thus shifting to the Fund responsibility for Part C claims made by miners who had stopped working in the coal industry before the promulgation of the 1969 Act.” Helen Mining Co., 924 F.2d at 1272; see also 26 U.S.C.A. § 9501(d) (West 1989). With this background in mind, we turn to an analysis of the three issues presented in this case: whether Elliot is an operator liable for benefits to its former employees because (1) the statutory definition of “operator” includes any “owner” or “lessee” regardless of whether or not it “operates, controls, or supervises” a coal mine; 16 (2) assuming Elliot as owner/lessor 17 must operate, control, or supervise the coal mine, whether it was nevertheless an operator because it possessed a sufficient degree of control or supervision over the mines in question through the rights it retained in its lease and sublease agreements; or, alternately, (3) whether it employed a “miner” after June 30, 1973.