Patriot Coal is in a plan-stage Chapter 11 posture built around a reorganization path, with the latest sourced plan record showing a Fourth Amended Joint Plan on file and later plan-supplement activity still generating creditor response. The case began on May 12, 2015, when Patriot and affiliates commenced their second Chapter 11 after a prior 2012 case, entering the new filing with coal-market pressure, substantial legacy obligations, limited liquidity, and roughly $791 million of secured debt described in the Dombrowski first-day declarationDkt. 22.
The filing pressure was immediate rather than merely balance-sheet-driven. Patriot operated eight active West Virginia mining complexes and entered the case with about $14 million of cash, a projected near-term liquidity shortfall, and a capital stack that included a $38 million ABL facility, $200 million letter-of-credit facility, $247 million term loan, and $306 million of second-lien PIK toggle notes, all against a business exposed to declining coal demand, environmental regulation, natural-gas competition, export weakness, and mine-maintenance obligations. The same Dombrowski first-day declarationDkt. 22 also framed the operational need for a $100 million DIP facility from existing lenders and described ongoing negotiations with a strategic party interested in acquiring most operating assets.
The restructuring then moved from first-day stabilization toward a plan process. By October 7, 2015, the debtors had filed the Fourth Amended Joint Plan of ReorganizationDkt. 1579, structured as an 11-class reorganization plan. The available record does not include a confirmation order or effective-date filing, but it does show that plan-supplement issues remained live into year-end, with Courtney Company and Mohler Lumber Company filing a response to the debtors’ third amended plan supplement on December 31, 2015 through the .
