“Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears” is a blog series documenting the harmful impact of President Trump’s judges on Americans’ rights and liberties. It includes judges nominated in both his first and second terms.
Trump Fourth Circuit Judge Marvin Quattlebaum wrote a 2-1 decision that overturned an administrative determination and effectively ruled that a federal trust fund, rather than a coal corporation, should be liable for the harm and damages suffered by a coal miner who contracted black lung disease. Judge Robert King, who had been nominated by President Clinton, dissented from the October decision in Hobet Mining v Director, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs.
What happened in this case?
Horace Meredith worked as a coal miner in West Virginia for 30 years, the last five of which were with Hobet Mining. Inc. Arch Coal Company, Inc. was the parent company of Hobet and several other subsidiaries and served as insurance carrier for those companies. Meredith filed a claim for black lung benefits, which led to a hearing before an administrative law judge. One of the key issues before the ALJ was whether Hobet and Arch were responsible, or whether the claim should be paid by the federal Black Lung Disease Trust Fund, which was set up by Congress to pay black lung benefits as necessary when coal companies could not do so.
The ALJ found that Arch and Hobet were responsible for the harm and damages suffered by Meredith, and the Department of Labor’s benefits review board agreed. The two companies, however, disagreed and took the case to the Fourth Circuit.
How did Trump judge Quattlebaum and the Fourth Circuit majority rule and why is it harmful?
In a 2-1 decision, Trump judge Quattlebaum, joined by George W Bush nominee Steven Agee, ruled that the administrative ruling was wrong and that Arch and Hobet had no liability for the harm suffered by Meredith due to black lung disease. They remanded the case to the agency,
strongly suggesting that the trust fund should be responsible.This was in accord with a similar decision in a Seventh Circuit case.
Judge King strongly dissented. He explained that Congress had clearly “intended” that “coal mine operators” and their insurers “shoulder the costs” of black lung disease and related issues, and had created the trust fund only as a “backstop” when necessary. In this case, however, he wrote that the majority had created “from whole cloth” a gap that will allow companies like Arch and Hobet to “shirk responsibility for paying countless black lung benefit claims” and turn the trust fund into a “slush fund” for those companies. The decisions of the ALJ and the agency benefits review board were clearly correct, he went on, as was a recent Sixth Circuit ruling. The majority ruling in this case, he wrote, can only serve to weaken the “continued vitality” of the trust fund. In addition to these harms, the ruling in this case illustrates the importance of our federal courts to health, welfare and justice and the significance of having fair-minded judges on the federal bench.