Section 86.195. Penalties against corporate officers

(a) The Department may assess a civil penalty against a corporate officer who participates in a violation or whose misconduct or intentional neglect causes or allows a violation.

(b) Whenever the Department issues an order to an operator for failing to abate violations contained in a previous order, it will send by certified mail to each corporate officer listed in the surface mining operator’s license application under § 86.353 (relating to identification of ownership), or to each corporate officer listed in a coal mining activities application under § 86.62 (relating to identification of interests), a copy of the failure to abate order and a notice of the officer’s liability under this section. If the violations are not abated within 30 days of issuance of the failure to abate order, the Department may assess a civil penalty against each officer receiving the notice provided by this subsection.

(c) When the Department and the permittee or corporate officer have agreed in writing on a plan for the abatement of or compliance with the failure to abate order, the corporate officer may postpone payment until receiving a decision under § 86.203 (relating to final assessment and payment of penalty), or written notice that abatement or compliance is satisfactory and the penalty has been withdrawn.

The provisions of this § 86.195 adopted June 25, 1993, effective June 26, 1993, 23 Pa.B. 3075; amended November 14, 1997, effective November 15, 1997, 27 Pa.B. 6041; amended November 28, 1997, effective November 29, 1997, 27 Pa.B. 6186; amended June 17, 2011, effective June 18, 2011, 41 Pa.B. 3084. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (313538) and (336577).

Notation

Notes of Decisions

Amendments

The Secretary of the Interior did not act arbitrarily and capriciously in approving state amendments to the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, 30 U.S.C.A. § 1201 et seq., that eliminated the ‘‘willfully and knowingly’’ scienter requirement for imposition of civil penalties on corporate officers and that changed the appeal procedures by requiring alleged violators to perfect an appeal from a compliance order at the risk of having their challenge to the fact of violation deemed waived. Pennsylvania Coal Ass’n v. Babbitt, 63 F.3d 231 (3d Cir. 1995).

Intent

Arguably, this regulation makes the scienter requirement as to corporate officers one of general intent rather than specific intent. Pennsylvania Coal Ass’n v. Babbitt, 63 F.3d 231 (3d Cir. 1995).