Cite as: 534 U. S. 438 (2002)
Stevens, J., dissenting
If we assume that Senators Rockefeller and Wallop correctly understood their work product, the provision is coherent. For it is obviously sensible to impose the cost of health care benefits on successors to signatory operators, and equally obvious that there is far less justification for imposing such liability on successors to related companies that are not engaged in coal mining. Moreover, assigning liability to direct successors is consistent with Congress' explicit objective to "identify persons most responsible for plan liabilities." § 19142(a)(2), 106 Stat. 3037.3 As between the two, the successor to a signatory has more notice that it may be held responsible for its predecessor's liabilities than the successor of a related person of the signatory. In fact, successors to signatories of the 1974 NBCWA are specifically on notice because of a provision in that agreement which states: "[The] Employer promise[s] that its operations covered by this Agreement shall not be sold, conveyed, or otherwise transferred or assigned to any successor without first securing the agreement of the successor to assume the Employer's obligations under this Agreement." Article I, National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1974.
Not only is the direct successor put on notice; presumably it received a lower sale price in exchange for assuming the collective-bargaining agreement obligations of its predecessor. Consider the facts of this case. Respondent, Jericol Mining, Inc., purchased the coal mining assets of Shackleford Coal Co., a signatory to the 1971 NBCWA. The sales con-3 Senator Wallop emphasized this point in clarifying why liability under § 9701(c) is "intentionally very broad." 138 Cong. Rec., at 34002. As he explained: "The purpose of this provision is to insure that every reasonable effort is made to locate a responsible party to provide the benefits before the cost is passed to other signatory companies which have never had any connection to the individual . . . . Allocation of beneficiaries to an entity or business which continues in business is the basic statutory intent. Thus, the Conference Agreement's overriding purpose is to find and designate a specific obligor for as many beneficiaries in the Plans as possible." Ibid.
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