Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.

Name: Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company — Concurring Opinion
Author: Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.

Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company… (1976)

Summary

“Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company — Concurring Opinion”, published in 1976, is a work by Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.. It explores elements such as liability, former miners and coal.

Quotes from Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company… (Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.)

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company… (1976)

“ Firms burdened with retroactive payments must meet that expense from current production and current sales in a market where prices must be competitive with the prices of firms not so burdened. One ordinarily would expect that if burdened firms are to meet both competitive prices and their retroactive obligations, their profits necessarily will be less than those of their competitors. Thus, the burdened firms in all likelihood will have to bear the costs of the retroactive liability rather than pass those costs on to consumers. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company… (1976)

“ A coal-mining concern cannot retroactively increase its prices to the former customers who benefited from the pre-1969 labors of former miners. The only consumers, therefore, who could bear these burdens are those who purchase coal currently. But in a free market such customers cannot be expected to pay a reparation add-on for coal produced by disadvantaged coal companies when the same product is readily obtainable from others at a lower price.↑ . ”

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Source: Wikisource

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company… (1976)

“ Some companies engaged in coal mining in years past on a much larger scale and with many more employees than currently. This is not an unusual situation in a "depleting asset" industry, where smaller companies often lack the resources with which to continue the acquisition and development of new properties. Stronger competitors, on the other hand, may have operated on a constant or an increasingly large scale. [8] In each case the competitively disadvantaged companies may be unable to spread a substantial portion of their costs to consumers. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company… (1976)

“ We find...that the imposition of liability for the effects of disabilities bred in the past is justified as a rational measure to spread the costs of the employees' disabilities to those who have profited from the fruits of their labor--the operators and the coal consumers. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company… (1976)

“ The coal industry is highly competitive and prices normally are determined by market forces. One therefore would expect that, had a compensation increment been added to operating costs, the operators over the long term simply would have passed most of it on to consumers, thereby leaving their profitability relatively unaffected. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company… (1976)

“ Although I find these assertions strongly suggestive that Congress has acted irrationally in pursuing a legitimate end, I am not satisfied that they are sufficient--in the absence of appropriate factual support--to override the presumption of constitutionality. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company… (1976)

“ In some industries conditions might be such that the cost of retroactively imposed benefits could be spread to consumers. It seems most unlikely, however, that the coal industry is such an industry. A notable fact about coal mining is that the industry currently employs only about 150,000 persons, whereas in 1939 it employed nearly 450,000. Brief for Operators 24. The reduced scale of employment in the coal industry, combined with the liability to former miners and their survivors, means that retroactive obligations almost certainly will be disproportionate to the scale of current operations. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company… (1976)

“ Under the statute, the class of claimants to which individual employers are liable includes both (i) miners employed at the time of or after enactment and (ii) miners no longer employed in the industry at the time of enactment (former miners) . ”

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.

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Quotes from Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Company… (Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.)

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