Justices Won’t Consider Coal Mine Retirees’ Bankruptcy Row

The US Supreme Court declined to examine whether coal mining companies improperly used bankruptcy to shed federal requirements that they maintain healthcare benefits for retired employees.

The decision allows affiliated companies of Jim Walter Resources to avoid providing future health care benefits to some of its retired coal workers.

The justices’ denial Monday comes after trustees of two mine worker healthcare benefit funds appealed an Eleventh Circuit decision.

In May 2022, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit found that the 1995 bankruptcy reorganization of Jim Walter Resources and its affiliated companies removed their related businesses’ obligations to ...