ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century the relentlessly entrepreneurial Judge John Leisenring had insisted on creating a separate partnership or company for each mine he operated, so as to assure that the failure of any single mine wouldn't drag down the others. For the sake of more efficient management, his great-grandson Ted Leisenring had subsequently consolidated many of those operations under the Westmoreland Coal umbrella. But now Westmoreland's bankruptcy inadvertently vindicated Judge John Leisenring's judgment. Throughout the twentieth century the Leisenring family's Penn Virginia Corporation had continued to function as a separate company—specifically, as the landlord for Westmoreland's coal and other operations. So Westmoreland's Chapter XI filing of 1994 left the assets of Penn Virginia intact and unaffected.
