By Roger Alford
The Associated Press

ROWDY, Ky. - An elderly eastern Kentucky couple say they fear federal bankruptcy protection for one of the nation's largest coal companies might mean they won't get paid for royalties on coal taken from their property.

In a letter to a federal bankruptcy judge, Silas Miller, 86, and Edith Miller, 82, of Rowdy, contend that Horizon Natural Resources owes them $688,672.

Silas Miller, a retired miner who suffers from black lung disease, said an agreement allowed the company - at one time the nation's fourth largest coal producer - to mine a 50-acre mountaintop above his home in exchange for $2 for every ton of coal hauled out.

He contends a Horizon subsidiary didn't pay as agreed.

"I just think they ripped me off," Miller said. "There's got to be some way to do something to change that."

Neither Horizon spokesman Matt Isner nor attorneys representing the company in bankruptcy proceedings returned phone calls Thursday.

Horizon, posting huge financial losses and unable to pay its creditors, filed for bankruptcy in November 2002.

The company's assets, valued at just less than $1 billion, are expected to be auctioned Aug. 17 to try to satisfy about $1 billion in debts and other obligations.

The Millers said they can only hope to get the money they claim the company owes them.

"We are suffering many injustices," they wrote in the letter filed in the court record on July 22.

The Millers' son, Lonnie Miller of Rowdy, said he feels that the coal company has preyed on an elderly couple.

"They've been done wrong," he said.

The Millers aren't the only retirees who could be hit hard by Horizon's bankruptcy.

The United Mine Workers of America said 3,800 retirees could lose their health benefits if the bankruptcy judge voids labor contracts with the union as company attorneys have requested. An additional 2,500 employees who would be eligible for health benefits after they retire could lose those, too, if the judge grants the attorneys' request.

Newcoal LLC, formed by New York billionaire Wilbur L. Ross and four other investors, wants to buy Horizon's properties. But a Horizon official said Newcoal apparently doesn't want Horizon's six union operations in Illinois, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Jim Morris, Horizon's vice president for business development, has said other potential buyers also have been unwilling to buy the company's union mines because of financial obligations related to labor contracts and retirement plans. Horizon said that's why the company asked the judge to void union contracts.

The bankruptcy judge heard arguments for and against that motion last month, but hasn't yet ruled.

About 1,000 protesters, most of them coal miners and their families, rallied outside a bankruptcy hearing on July 20 to show their concern about the issue. They say thousands of active and retired miners would lose their health benefits if the judge grants the request.