Discontinued Operations

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Discontinued Operations and Disposal Groups [Abstract]

Discontinued operations include certain former Seaborne Thermal Mining and Midwestern U.S. Mining segment assets that have ceased production and other previously divested legacy operations, including Patriot Coal Corporation and certain of its wholly-owned subsidiaries (Patriot).

Summarized Results of Discontinued Operations

Results from discontinued operations were as follows during the periods presented below:



	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2019			2018			2019			2018
	(Dollars in millions)
Loss from discontinued operations, net of income taxes	$	(3.8	)	$	(4.1	)	$	(10.6	)	$	(9.0	)

Assets and Liabilities of Discontinued Operations

Assets and liabilities classified as discontinued operations included in the Company’s condensed consolidated balance sheets were as follows:



	September 30, 2019		December 31, 2018
	(Dollars in millions)
Assets:
Other current assets	$	0.2	$	—
Total assets classified as discontinued operations	$	0.2	$	—

Liabilities:
Accounts payable and accrued expenses	$	53.7	$	54.0
Other noncurrent liabilities	127.0		141.1
Total liabilities classified as discontinued operations	$	180.7	$	195.1

Patriot-Related Matters

A significant portion of the liabilities in the table above relate to Patriot. In 2012, Patriot filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the U.S. Code (the Bankruptcy Code). In 2013, the Company entered into a definitive settlement agreement (2013 Agreement) with Patriot and the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), on behalf of itself, its represented Patriot employees and its represented Patriot retirees, to resolve all then-disputed issues related to Patriot’s bankruptcy. In May 2015, Patriot again filed voluntary petitions for relief under the Bankruptcy Code in the Eastern District of Virginia and subsequently initiated a process to sell some or all of its assets to qualified bidders. On October 9, 2015, Patriot’s bankruptcy court entered an order confirming Patriot’s plan of reorganization, which provided, among other things, for the sale of substantially all of Patriot’s assets to two different buyers.

Black Lung Occupational Disease Liabilities. Patriot had federal and state black lung occupational disease liabilities related to workers employed in periods prior to Patriot’s spin-off from the Company in 2007. Upon spin-off, Patriot indemnified the Company against any claim relating to these liabilities, which amounted to approximately $150 million at that time. The indemnification included any claim made by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) against the Company with respect to these obligations as a potentially liable operator under the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. The 2013 Agreement included Patriot’s affirmance of indemnities provided in the spin-off agreements, including the indemnity relating to such black lung liabilities; however, Patriot rejected this indemnity in its May 2015 bankruptcy.

By statute, the Company had secondary liability for the black lung liabilities related to Patriot’s workers employed by former subsidiaries of the Company. The Company’s accounting for the black lung liabilities related to Patriot is based on an interpretation of applicable statutes. Management believes that inconsistencies exist among the applicable statutes, regulations promulgated under those statutes and the DOL’s interpretative guidance. The Company has sought clarification from the DOL regarding these inconsistencies. The accounting for these liabilities could be reduced in the future. Whether the Company will ultimately be required to fund certain of those obligations in the future as a result of Patriot’s May 2015 bankruptcy remains uncertain. The amount of the liability, which was determined on an actuarial basis based on the best information available to the Company, was $103.8 million and $102.7 million at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively. While the Company has recorded a liability, it intends to review each claim on a case-by-case basis and contest liability estimates as appropriate. The amount of the Company’s recorded liability reflects only Patriot workers employed by former subsidiaries of the Company that are presently retired, disabled or otherwise not actively employed. The Company cannot reliably estimate the potential liabilities for Patriot’s workers employed by former subsidiaries of the Company that are presently active in the workforce because of the potential for such workers to continue to work for another coal operator that is a going concern.

Combined Benefit Fund (Combined Fund). The Combined Fund was created by the Coal Act in 1992 as a multi-employer plan to provide health care benefits to a closed group of retirees who last worked prior to 1976, as well as orphaned beneficiaries of bankrupt companies who were receiving benefits as orphans prior to the passage of the Coal Act. No new retirees will be added to this group, which includes retirees formerly employed by certain Patriot subsidiaries and their predecessors. Former employers are required to contribute to the Combined Fund according to a formula.

Under the terms of the Patriot spin-off, Patriot was primarily liable to the Combined Fund for the approximately $40 million of its subsidiaries’ obligations at that time. Once Patriot ceased meeting its obligations, the Company was held responsible for these costs and, as a result, recorded “Loss from discontinued operations, net of income taxes” charges of $0.2 million and during both the three months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, and $0.5 million during both the nine months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018. The Company made payments into the fund of $1.4 million and $1.7 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively, and estimates that the annual cash cost to fund these potential Combined Fund liabilities will range between $1 million and $2 million in the near-term, with those premiums expected to decline over time because the fund is closed to new participants. The liability related to the fund was $15.4 million and $16.4 million at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively.

UMWA 1974 Pension Plan (UMWA Plan) Litigation. On July 16, 2015, a lawsuit was filed by the UMWA Plan, the UMWA 1974 Pension Trust (Trust) and the Trustees of the UMWA Plan and Trust (Trustees) in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, against the Company, Peabody Holding Company, LLC, a subsidiary of the Company, and Arch Coal, Inc. (Arch). The plaintiffs sought, pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980, a declaratory judgment that the defendants were obligated to arbitrate any opposition to the Trustees’ determination that the defendants had statutory withdrawal liability as a result of the 2015 Patriot bankruptcy. After a legal and arbitration process and with the approval of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (Bankruptcy Court), on January 25, 2017, the UMWA Plan and the Company agreed to a settlement of the claim which entitled the UMWA Plan to $75 million to be paid by the Company in increments through 2021. The balance of the liability, on a discounted basis, was $24.9 million and $36.7 million at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively.