Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/444/69/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 02:32:00+00:00

Document:
Section 2(3) of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, as amended in 1972, defines an employee as "any person engaged in maritime employment, including any longshoreman or other person engaged in longshoring operations. . . ." The question in this case is whether two workers were engaged in "maritime employment," as defined by § 2(3), when they sustained injuries for which they sought compensation. Respondent Ford was injured on a public dock in the Port of Beaumont, Tex., while employed by petitioner P. C. Pfeiffer Co. and while fastening onto railroad flatcars military vehicles that had been delivered to the port by ship, stored, and then loaded the day before the accident onto the flatcars. Respondent Bryant, while working as a cotton header for petitioner Ayers Steamship Co. in the Port of Galveston, Tex., was injured while unloading a bale of cotton from a dray wagon into a pier warehouse. Cotton arriving at the port from inland shippers enters storage in cotton compress-warehouses, then goes by dray wagon to pier warehouses, and later is moved by longshoremen from the warehouses onto ships. Both Ford's and Bryant's claims for coverage were denied by Administrative Law Judges applying the "point of rest" doctrine whereby maritime employment would include only the portion of the unloading process that takes place before the stevedoring gang places cargo onto the dock and the portion of the loading process that takes place to the seaside of the last point of rest on the dock. The Benefits Review Board reversed both decisions, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. On remand for reconsideration in light of this Court's decision in Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, 432 U. S. 249, which rejected the "point of rest" theory, the Court of Appeals reaffirmed its earlier opinion.
Held: Ford and Bryant were engaged in maritime employment at the time of their injuries, because they were engaged in intermediate steps of moving cargo between ship and land transportation. Pp. 444 U. S. 77-84.
situs and status requirements. Section 3(a) of the Act allows recovery for an injury suffered on navigable waters or certain adjoining areas landward of the water's edge, thus defining the broad geographic coverage of the Act, whereas § 2(3) defines the Acts occupational requirements, referring to the nature of a worker's activities. The legislative history also shows that Congress intended the term "maritime employment" in § 2(3) to refer to status, rather than situs. In adopting an occupational test that focuses on loading and unloading, Congress anticipated that some persons who work only on land would receive benefits under the Act. Cf. Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, supra. Pp. 444 U. S. 77-81.
(b) Ford and Bryant are the kind of land-based employees that Congress intended to encompass within the term "maritime employment." Both men engaged in the type of duties that longshoremen perform in transferring goods between ship and land transportation. Under § 2(3), workers doing tasks traditionally performed by longshoremen are within the purview of the Act. The crucial factor is the nature of the activity to which a worker may be assigned. Persons moving cargo directly from ship to land transportation are engaged in maritime employment, and a worker responsible for some portion of that activity is as much an integral part of the process of loading or unloading a ship as a person who participates in the entire process. Pp. 444 U. S. 81-84.
575 F.2d 79, affirmed. POWELL, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
The question in this case is whether two workers were engaged in "maritime employment," as defined by § 2(3) of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 44 Stat. 1425, as amended, 86 Stat. 1251, 33 U.S.C. § 902(3), when they sustained injuries for which they seek compensation.
compress warehouses. The cotton then goes by dray wagon to pier warehouses, where a driver and two cotton headers unload and store it. Longshoremen later move the cotton from the pier warehouses onto ships.
Contractual agreements between employers, the cotton headers' union, and the longshoremen's union distinguish the work that cotton headers may perform from the tasks assignable to longshoremen. Cotton headers may only load cotton off dray wagons into the pier warehouses or move cotton within a pier warehouse. Cargo moved directly from the ship to shoreside transportation, or directly from shoreside transportation to the ship, is handled solely by longshoremen. Id. at 25, 48 49, 57-58, 661.
"results from an injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States (including any adjoining pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal, building way, marine railway, or other adjoining area customarily used by an employer in loading, unloading, repairing, or building a vessel)."
engaged in maritime employment, including any longshoreman or other person engaged in longshoring operations, and any harborworker including a ship repairman,shipbuilder, and shipbreaker. . . ."
§ 2(3), 33 U.S.C. § 902(3). To be eligible for compensation, a person must be an employee as defined by § 2(3) who sustains injury on the situs defined by § 3(a).
This Court first considered the scope of § 2(3)'s status requirement in Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, 432 U. S. 249 (1977). That case concerned the claims of two workers, Blundo and Caputo. Blundo was on a pier checking cargo as it was removed from a container when he suffered a fall. [Footnote 4] Caputo sustained injury while rolling a loaded dolly into a consignee's truck. [Footnote 5] We recognized that neither the 1972 Act nor its legislative history states explicitly whether workers like Blundo and Caputo, who handle cargo between sea and land transportation, are employees within the meaning of § 2(3). The Court found, however, that consideration of the legislative history in light of the remedial purposes behind the expansion of coverage reveals a clear intent to cover such workers. 432 U.S. at 432 U. S. 267-278.
were removed from a container was an integral part of the unloading process even though the container had been removed from a ship and trucked to a different pier before being emptied. Therefore, Blundo was an employee within the meaning of § 2(3). 432 U.S. at 432 U. S. 271.
Caputo, working as part of the traditional process of moving goods from ship to land transportation, was unaffected by the advent of containerization. But the Court recognized another congressional purpose relevant to the resolution of Caputo's claim. Congress wanted to ensure that a worker who could have been covered part of the time by the pre-1972 Act would be completely covered by the 1972 Act. By enlarging the covered situs and enacting the status requirement, Congress intended that a worker's eligibility for federal benefits would not depend on whether he was injured while walking down a gangway or while taking his first step onto the land. Congress therefore counted as "longshoremen" persons who spend "at least some of their time in indisputably longshoring operations." Id. at 432 U. S. 273. Caputo, who could have been assigned to loading containers and barges as well as trucks, was such a person. Ibid. Accordingly, the Court did not have to decide whether Caputo's work was "maritime employment" simply because he "engaged in the final steps of moving cargo from maritime to land transportation: putting it in the consignee's truck." Id. at 432 U. S. 272.
In holding that Blundo and Caputo were covered by the Act, Northeast Marine Terminal explicitly rejected the "point of rest" theory. Under that test, maritime employment would include only the portion of the unloading process that takes place before the stevedoring gang places cargo onto the dock. For example, a worker who carried cargo directly from a ship to a warehouse or a truck would be engaged in maritime employment, but one who carried cargo from a warehouse to a truck would not. In loading operations, only workers employed to the seaside of the last point of rest would be covered.
"[a] theory that nowhere appears in the Act, that was never mentioned by Congress during the legislative process, that does not comport with Congress' intent, and that restricts the coverage of a remedial Act designed to extend coverage [was] incapable of defeating our conclusion that Blundo and Caputo [were] 'employees.'"
Id. at 432 U. S. 278-279.
Most of the litigation in the present case took place before our decision in Northeast Marine Terminal. At the initial administrative level, both Ford's and Bryant's claims for coverage were denied by Administrative Law Judges applying the point of rest doctrine. The Benefits Review Board reversed both decisions. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed. Jacksonville Shipyards, Inc. v. Perdue, 539 F.2d 533 (1976). The court rejected the point of rest theory, holding instead that the 1972 Act covers all workers directly involved in the work of loading, unloading, repairing, building, or breaking a vessel. Id. at 539-540. The court found that "Ford's work of fastening the vehicles to the flat cars was . . . the last step in transferring this cargo from sea to land transportation," id. at 543, and that Bryant's work "was an integral part of the ongoing process of moving cargo between land transportation and a ship," id. at 544. Accordingly, the Court of Appeals concluded that both men were covered by the 1972 Act.
(1977). On remand, the Fifth Circuit reaffirmed the reasoning of its earlier opinion. 575 F.2d 79, 80 (1978) (per curiam). We again granted certiorari, 439 U.S. 978 (1978), and we now affirm.
The difficulty with petitioners' position becomes even plainer when their interpretation is applied to a single statutory provision that contains both the status and the situs requirement. Section 2(4), 33 U.S.C. § 902(4), defines an "employer" as one "any of whose employees are employed in maritime employment, in whole or in part, upon the navigable waters of the United States" as broadly defined by § 3(a).
If the term "maritime employment" referred only to work that might take employees seaward of the Jensen line, then the broader situs test in the final clause of this section would become virtually superfluous. We decline the invitation to construe "maritime employment" so as to create two differing situs requirements in a single sentence. By understanding the term "maritime employment" to embody an occupational, rather than a geographic, concept, we give the two phases in § 2(4) distinct and consistent meanings.
to pick up stored cargo for further transshipment would not be covered, nor would purely clerical employees whose job do not require them to participate in the loading or unloading of cargo. [Footnote 10]"
In adopting an occupational test that focuses on loading and unloading, Congress anticipated that some persons who work only on land would receive benefits under the 1972 Act. An obvious example of such a worker is Blundo. He was checking and marking cargo from a container that had been removed from a ship and moved overland to another pier before it was opened. Without any indication that he ever would be required to set foot on a ship, this Court held that he was covered by the 1972 Act because this type of work was maritime employment. Northeast Marine Terminal Co., 432 U.S. at 432 U. S. 271.
ship, his task of moving cotton off a dray wagon would have been performed by a longshoreman. [Footnote 15] Similarly, longshoremen -- not warehousemen like Ford -- would fasten military vehicles onto railroad flatcars if those vehicles went directly from a ship to the railroad cars. [Footnote 16] The only basis for distinguishing Bryant or Ford from longshoremen who otherwise would perform the same work is the point-of-rest theory. That is, longshoremen in the Ports of Beaumont and Galveston would have performed the work done by Bryant and Ford had the cargo moved without interruption between land and sea transportation. Our unanimous opinion in Northeast Marine Terminal expressly decided that application of the point-of-rest test to define the scope of maritime employment would be contrary to congressional intent. Id. at 432 U. S. 275-279. Thus, there is no principled basis for distinguishing Ford and Bryant from longshoremen who have been injured while performing the same tasks.
Our decision serves the intent of Congress in creating the status requirement. First, it focuses upon the nature, not the location, of employment. Second, it does not extend coverage to all workers in the situs area. There is no doubt, for example, that neither the driver of the truck carrying cotton to Galveston nor the locomotive engineer transporting military vehicles from Beaumont was engaged in maritime employment, even though he was working on the marine situs. Such a person's "responsibility is only to pick up stored cargo for further transshipment." S.Rep. No. 92-1125, p. 13 (1972); H.R.Rep. No. 92-1441, p. 11 (1972); see Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, 432 U.S. at 432 U. S. 267, 432 U. S. 275, n. 37.
of maritime employment that reaches any worker who moves cargo between ship and land transportation will enable both workers and employers to predict with reasonable assurance who on the situs is protected by the 1972 Act.
A State, however, could compensate a worker who was injured while engaged in "maritime but local" activity. See Grant Smith-Porter Ship Co. v. Rohde, 257 U. S. 469, 257 U. S. 476-477 (1922); Western Fuel Co. v. Garcia, 257 U. S. 233, 257 U. S. 242 (1921). See generally G. Gilmore & C. Black, The Law of Admiralty § 49 (2d ed.1975).
Nacirema Operating Co. v. Johnson denied compensation to three workers who attached cargo in railroad cars to ships' cranes for loading onto a vessel. When a loaded crane swung back toward land, the men were knocked onto a pier or crushed against a railroad car. A fourth case considered in the Court of Appeals along with the three cases consolidated in Nacirema Operating Co. vividly illustrated the arbitrariness of the Jensen line. The lower courts held that the Act covered a longshoreman who fell from his workplace on a pier into the water, where he drowned. See Marine Stevedoring Corp. v. Oosting, 238 F.Supp. 78 (ED Va.1965), aff'd, 398 F.2d 900 (CA4 1968) (en banc). The only difference between this longshoreman and the three workers in Nacirema Operating Co. was where his body fell. See Nacirema Operating Co. v. Johnson, 396 U.S. at 396 U. S. 224-225 (Douglas, J., dissenting).
86 Stat. 1251. The primary purposes of the 1972 Amendments were to raise the amount of compensation available under the Act, to abolish the longshoremen's seaworthiness remedy against the owners of a vessel, and to outlaw shipowners' claims for indemnification from stevedores. Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, 432 U. S. 249, 432 U. S. 261-262, and n. 18 (1977).
When a vessel carrying containers reaches port, the loaded containers are removed from the ship intact and moved overland. If a container holds cargo for more than one consignee, workers unload the goods for shipment inland. See id. at 432 U. S. 252-253, and n. 2.
Caputo was working as a part of the traditional break-bulk cargo handling process in which each item of cargo is separately taken out of the hold of a vessel and moved ashore. Id. at 432 U. S. 255, 432 U. S. 272.
Petitioners do not dispute that both accidents took place on the situs defined by § 3(a), 33 U.S.C. § 903(a), or that both men worked for statutory employers within the meaning of § 2(4), 33 U.S.C. § 902(4). Brief for Petitioners 7, n. 11, 28, n. 62.
"any person engaged in maritime employment, including any longshoreman or other person engaged in longshoring operations, and any harborworker including a ship repairman, shipbuilder, and shipbreaker. . . ."
33 U.S.C. § 902(3). The petitioners' argument supposes that the word "including" means "and" or "as well as." We understand the word "including" to indicate that "longshoring operations" are a part of the larger group of activities that make up "maritime employment." See Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary 581 (1973).
In fact, the language of the situs requirement lends independent support to the conclusion that Congress focused on occupation, rather than location. The covered situs includes specific areas adjoining navigable water or any "other adjoining area customarily used by an employer in loading, unloading, repairing, or building a vessel." § 3(a), 33 U.S.C. § 903(a). See also § 2(4), 33 U.S.C. § 902(4).
The legislative history of § 2(3) is not extensive. Committee Reports to both the House and the Senate contain identical language about the types of employees covered by the 1972 Act. See S.Rep. No. 92-1125, p. 13 (1972); H.R.Rep. No. 92-1441, pp. 10-11 (1972). The Senate Report also states that the 1972 Act "expands the coverage of this Act to cover injuries occurring in the contiguous dock area related to longshore and ship repair work." S.Rep. No. 92-1125, supra, at 2. Debate on the 1972 Act contributed little more than restatements of the Committee Reports and the statutory language. See, e.g., 118 Cong.Rec. 36270-36271 (1972) (remarks of Sen. Williams); id. at 36381-36382 (remarks of Rep. Daniels) .
S.Rep. No. 92-1125, supra at 13; H.R.Rep. No. 92-1441, supra at 11.
Petitioners also cite two decisions for the proposition that pre-1972 case law defines maritime employment to include only work on the navigable waters. See Pennsylvania R. Co. v. O'Rourke, 344 U. S. 334, 344 U. S. 339-340 (1953); Nogueira v. New York, N.H. & H.R. Co., 281 U. S. 128, 281 U. S. 133 (1930). Neither decision discusses what types of land-based loading or unloading operations might constitute maritime employment, probably because the situs requirement in the pre-1972 Act barred recovery for all injuries sustained on land. See Nacirema Operating Co. v. Johnson, 396 U. S. 212 (1969). In any event, the interpretation of the pre-1972 Act cannot obstruct Congress' obvious intent to include some land-based workers within the coverage of the current Act.
Hearings on S. 2318 et al. before the Subcommittee on Labor of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, 92d Cong., 2d Sess., 176 (1972) (testimony of Ralph Hartman, Bethlehem Steel Corp.). The same witness was asked if his company would favor extending federal benefits to all ship repairmen instead of continuing the pre-1972 practice of limiting federal compensation to ship repairmen who worked over the water. He stated that "we would interpose no objection . . . to extending the Longshoremen's Act to the land-based facility of the ship repair yard." Id. at 177.
P. Hartman, Collective Bargaining and Productivity 43-45 (1969); M. Norris, The Law of Maritime Personal Injuries § 3, p. 7 (3d ed.1975); see U.S. Dept. of Labor, Manpower Utilization-Job Security in the Longshore Industry (Boston) 441 (1964); id. (Baltimore), at 32; id. (Houston-Galveston), at 45-46, 65-69; id. (Jacksonville-Charleston), at 38-40, 57-59; id. (Mobile), at 36-37; id. (New Orleans), at 35-36; id. (New York), at 21-24; id. (Philadelphia), at 37-38. A Committee of the House of Representatives found in 1922 that longshoremen may be "unloading a dray or a railroad car or moving articles from one point on the dock to another" as well as actually moving cargo on or off ship. H.R.Rep. No. 639, 67th Cong., 2d Sess., 2 (1922).
Supra at 444 U. S. 72.
As noted above, see supra at 444 U. S. 71-72, longshoremen in the Ports of Beaumont and Galveston handle all cargo that moves directly between ship and land transportation. That arrangement appears to reflect a general industry rule. See Hartman, supra, n 13, at 60; U.S. Dept of Labor, Manpower Utilization-Job Security in the Longshore Industry (Baltimore) 31 (1964); id. (New Orleans), at 35; id. (Jacksonville) at 40.
Congress was especially concerned that some workers might walk in and walk out of coverage. Our observation that Ford and Bryant were engaged in maritime employment at the time of their injuries does not undermine the holding of Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, 432 U.S. at 432 U. S. 273-274, that a worker is covered if he spends some of his time in indisputably longshoring operations and if, without the 1972 Act, he would be only partially covered.
P. C. Pfeiffer Company, Inc.

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