⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Seventh Circuit hears consolidated appeals over damage from four abandoned coal mines in Macoupin County, Illinois. Superior Coal operated the mines from 1904 to 1953 and dissolved in 1957. Decades later, collapsing mine structures damaged homes and a school. Illinois requires property insurers to offer mine-subsidence coverage and created the Illinois Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund to reimburse them. After paying claims, the Fund repeatedly sued Union Pacific, arguing that the railroad inherited Superior's liabilities through corporate succession. A 2019 federal judgment rejected the Fund's alter-ego and de facto merger theories, but another homeowner claim followed. Union Pacific then sought declaratory and injunctive relief to stop further relitigation. The district court barred claims the Fund had acquired before the 2019 judgment, but did not reach issue preclusion and denied an injunction. These cross-appeals ask whether the same corporate-liability issues may be relitigated for each new homeowner, whether the Fund acts in a different legal capacity each time, and whether Union Pacific is entitled to an injunction.

Union Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund (No. 26-1095; 26-1219) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, argued September 15, 2026.