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"The board of Lehigh and its new management have taken over the company," Lawrence G. McMichael, Philadelphia, one of the company's attorneys, said Wednesday after Jack Teitz, Pittsburgh area, officially took the helm as LC&N's interim CEO. "It's a good day for the company."
Teitz ousted Sean D. Curran, LC&N's president and CEO, in taking over the reins of one of the largest remaining producers of anthracite coal.
"I know that Mr. Teitz telephoned my brother, Sean, and terminated him," said Sarah Curran Smith, LC&N's vice president of industrial relations.
Smith did say she had not heard from the state Department of Environmental Protection or seen any court documents about the case.
Wednesday's action followed an Oct. 1 ruling by Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John J. Thomas, Wilkes-Barre, that allowed LC&N's board of directors to reject the existing management contract with Coaldale Energy LLC, which Sean Curran headed, and rejected Coaldale's request to appoint a trustee in bankruptcy for LC&N.
Bob Smith, who has been with LC&N for many years, also joins the new management team as chief financial officer, McMichael said.
James J. Curran Jr., LC&N's sole shareholder, had sought to depose Sean Curran, his son, as the company's leader.
DEP had supported Coaldale's request, but the agency is no longer an obstacle to LC&N's new direction, McMichael said.
McMichael said there would not be much more activity in court, although a spokeswoman for Thomas said the hearing originally scheduled for Wednesday had been rescheduled for 2 p.m. Oct. 15.
He said the company is producing 30,000 to 40,000 tons of raw coal a month from the 8,000 acres the company owns in Carbon and Schuylkill counties.
LC&N will have its headquarters in Pottsville and will need four to six months to recover from the financial problems that precipitated the change, McMichael said.
Four of LC&N's creditors filed a petition on July 15 to put LC&N into involuntary bankruptcy. According to the petition, LC&N owed $7,425,297 to those four: Primerock Capital LLC, Pittsburgh, Bruce Toll and The Bruce and Robbi Toll Foundation, both of Horsham, and Douglas Topkis, New York City.
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