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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1854', '§ 1841', '§ 500', '§ 1854', '§ 440', '§ 1854', '§ 1841', '§ 1841', '§ 1854', '§ 1841', '§ 1841', '§ 1871', '§ 1983', '§ 1854', '§ 1854', '§ 1854']

ADAMS FRUIT CO., INC. V. BARRETT, 494 U. S. 638 (1990) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
US Supreme Court Decisions - On-Line> Volume 494 > ADAMS FRUIT CO., INC. V. BARRETT, 494 U. S. 638 (1990)
ADAMS FRUIT CO., INC. V. BARRETT, 494 U. S. 638 (1990)
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Adams Fruit Co., Inc. v. Barrett, 494 U.S. 638 (1990)
Adams Fruit Co., Inc. v. Barrett
No. 88-2035
(a) The explicit language of AWPA's enforcement provisions -- which establishes a private right of action for "[a]ny person aggrieved by a violation," § 1854(a) -- indicates that that right is unaffected by the availability of remedies under state workers' compensation law. A congressional intent to the contrary is not established by AWPA's motor vehicle safety provisions, which permit employers to satisfy the statute's insurance and liability bond requirements through their state workers' compensation insurance. The safety provisions appear in a Title far removed from the enforcement provisions, and the latter provisions contain Congress' sole express limitation on the availability of relief, which applies where no attempt was made to resolve the disputed issues before litigation. Had Congress intended to limit further the availability of AWPA relief based on the adequacy of state workers' compensation remedies, it would have made that purpose clear in AWPA's enforcement provisions. Moreover, the insurance waiver provision is not inconsistent with the availability of overlapping remedies under workers' compensation chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 639
laws and AWPA, since the agricultural employer, whether or not it has enrolled in a workers' compensation plan, will be liable under AWPA's enforcement provisions if the employee's actual damages exceed the required minimum insurance coverage. Although Congress may choose to establish state remedies as adequate alternatives to federal relief, it cannot be assumed that private federal rights of action are conditioned on the unavailability of state remedies absent some indication to that effect. Cases in which this Court has harmonized federal statutes that provide overlapping federal remedies are not to the contrary. Pp. 494 U. S. 643-647.
Page 494 U. S. 640
Respondents, migrant farmworkers employed by petitioner Adams Fruit Company, Inc., suffered severe injuries in an automobile accident while they traveled to work in Adams Fruit's van. As a result of their injuries, respondents received benefits pursuant to Florida workers' compensation law. They thereafter filed suit against Adams Fruit in Federal District Court, alleging that their injuries were attributable in part to Adams Fruit's intentional violations of AWPA's motor vehicle safety provisions, 29 U.S.C. § 1841(b)(1)(A) (1982 ed.), and accompanying regulations, 29 chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 641
CFR § 500.105 (1989). Respondents maintained that the van in which they were transported was inadequate to support the vehicle's weight; that the total number of persons in the van exceeded its seating capacity; that a seat was not provided for each passenger; that the van was overloaded; that the seats in the van were not equipped with seat belts; and that Adams Fruit committed these violations intentionally. Respondents sought actual and statutory damages pursuant to AWPA's private right of action provision, 29 U.S.C. § 1854 (1982 ed.). [Footnote 1]
Adams Fruit moved for summary judgment on the ground that Florida law provides that its workers' compensation remedy "shall be exclusive and in place of all other liability of such employer to . . . the employee," Fla.Stat. § 440.11 (1989), and that respondents' receipt of workers' compensation benefits therefore precluded them from recovering damages under AWPA for the same injuries. In support of its position, Adams Fruit maintained that Congress did not, in creating a private right of action for migrant workers, intend to preempt or interfere with the operation of state workers' compensation schemes, including their exclusivity provisions. The District Court granted petitioner's motion, relying on the Fourth Circuit's decision in Roman v. Sunny Slope chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 642
Farms, Inc., 817 F.2d 1116, 1118 (1987). The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed, holding that an exclusivity provision in a state workers' compensation law does not bar a private suit under AWPA. 867 F.2d 1305, 1311 (1989). We granted certiorari to resolve this split in authority, 493 U.S. 808 (1989), and now affirm.
Section 1854 of AWPA establishes a private right of action for aggrieved migrant workers against agricultural employers, and provides for actual and statutory damages in cases of intentional violations. Resolution of petitioner's claim that AWPA's private right of action is withdrawn where state law establishes workers' compensation as an exclusive remedy depends on two doctrinally related issues. First we must decide whether, as a matter of statutory construction, AWPA permits migrant workers to pursue federal remedies under such circumstances. Second, if AWPA permits simultaneous recovery under federal and state law, we must determine whether, under preemption principles, AWPA precludes giving effect to state exclusivity provisions that purport to withdraw federal remedies. In either case, the issue turns on the language of the statute and, where the language is not dispositive, on the intent of Congress as revealed in the history and purposes of the statutory scheme. See, e.g., Consumer Product Safety Comm'n v. GTE Sylvania, Inc., 447 U. S. 102, 447 U. S. 108 (1980) ("[T]he starting point for interpreting a statute is the language of the statute itself"); Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 463 U. S. 85, 463 U. S. 95 (1983) ("[I]n deciding whether a federal law preempts a state statute, our task is to ascertain Congress' intent in enacting the federal statute at issue"). As a general rule of statutory construction, where the terms of a statute are unambiguous, judicial inquiry is complete. See, e.g., Rubin v. United States, 449 U. S. 424, 449 U. S. 430 (1981). Preemption "is compelled whether Congress' command is explicitly stated in the statute's chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 643
language or implicitly contained in its structure and purpose." Jones v. Rath Packing Co., 430 U. S. 519, 430 U. S. 525 (1977).
Adams Fruit maintains that Congress' decision to permit agricultural employers to satisfy AWPA's insurance policy and liability bond requirements through their state workers' compensation insurance reflects an intent to preclude AWPA chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 644
Adams Fruit's argument is unpersuasive, because it rests on the extraordinary and unjustified proposition that congressional intent regarding private enforcement of AWPA is best discerned through a meaning alleged to be implicit in AWPA's motor vehicle safety provisions, rather than the explicit language of AWPA's enforcement provisions. AWPA's motor vehicle safety provisions appear in Title IV of the Act, entitled "Further Protections for Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers," whereas AWPA's provision for a private right of action appears in Title V, part A, labeled "Enforcement Provisions." Moreover, Congress' sole express limitation on the availability of relief is found in AWPA's enforcement provisions, see § 1854(c)(2) (authorizing a court, "[i]n determining the amount of damages to be awarded . . to consider whether an attempt was made to resolve the issues in dispute before the resort to litigation"). Had Congress intended to limit further the availability of AWPA relief based on the adequacy of state workers' compensation remedies, it would have made that purpose clear in the enforcement provisions of AWPA. [Footnote 2] Petitioner's argument, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 645
which relies on provisions far removed from Congress' express authorization of a federal remedy, is inconsistent with basic principles of statutory construction that require giving effect to the meaning and placement of the words chosen by Congress. See Davis v. Michigan Dept. of Treasury, 489 U. S. 803, 489 U. S. 813 (1989).
Adams Fruit's argument is also flawed in that the insurance waiver provision is not inconsistent with the availability of overlapping remedies under workers' compensation laws and AWPA. It is true that, in accordance with § 1841(c)(1)'s waiver of insurance requirements, an agricultural employer will not be in violation of AWPA if it fails to obtain insurance sufficient to cover its potential liability as long as the employer maintains insurance under state workers' compensation law. But the possibility of underinsurance is also present where an employer is not enrolled in a workers' compensation plan. AWPA limits the insurance that agricultural employers must carry, 29 U.S.C. § 1841(b)(3) (1982 ed.); if a claim exceeds the required coverage, an employer is nonetheless liable for the whole claim. § 1854(c)(1) (authorizing damages "up to and including an amount equal to the amount of actual damages"); see also 128 Cong.Rec. 32463 (1982) ("[F]ull actual damages [are to] be awarded in every case"). In this respect, AWPA does not differ from other mandatory insurance regimes that require a minimum level of coverage without establishing an absolute limit on liability. Thus, Congress' decisions to allow workers' compensation insurance to satisfy § 1841(b)'s minimum coverage requirements on the one hand, and to afford migrant workers federal and state remedies that may exceed such coverage on the other, are not incompatible; indeed, the decisions are consistent with AWPA's treatment of agricultural employers who are not exempted from § 1841(b)'s insurance and bond requirements. [Footnote 3] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 646
Accordingly, the plain meaning of the statute's language indicates that AWPA's private right of action is unaffected chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 647
We disagree that Florida's exclusivity provision is intended to preclude federal remedies. Neither the Florida Legislature nor the Florida courts have declared such a purpose; indeed, to the limited extent that the Florida Supreme Court has expressed a view regarding the extraterritorial scope of the exclusivity provision, it has stated the opposite. See Byrd v. Richardson-Greenshields Securities, Inc., 552 So.2d 1099, 1102 (1989) (refusing to frustrate federal and state sexual harassment policies through "blind adherence to the exclusivity rule of the workers' compensation statute alone" and expressing its commitment "not [to] apply the exclusivity rule in a manner that effectively abrogates the policies of other law"). We therefore decline petitioner's invitation to construe Florida law so as to create a conflict between federal and state legislation. [Footnote 4] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 648
Even if Florida's provision were directed at federal law, § 1871 does not mandate displacement of the federal remedy. Although that section permits States to supplement AWPA's remedial scheme, it cannot be viewed as authorizing States to replace or supersede its remedies. Nor are we persuaded by petitioner's claim that Congress intended to preserve the particular balance state workers' compensation statutes generally strike between assurance of compensation, on the one hand, and limited and exclusive liability for the employer, on the other. Whatever the merits of this characterization of the purposes of workers' compensation, the point is off-target. That congressional authorization of a federal remedy may affect the balance struck in state regulatory schemes does not suggest that Congress intended its remedial provisions to be effective only in certain States. Federal legislation applies in all States, and in cases of conflict between federal law and the policies purportedly underlying some state regulatory schemes, the scope of federal law is not curtailed.
More generally, we refuse to adopt Adams Fruit's "reverse" preemption principle that would authorize States to withdraw federal remedies by establishing state remedies as exclusive. Such provisions cannot be viewed as permissible interstitial regulation in the service of, or at least neutral with respect to, the purposes of the federal scheme. Cf. Mackey v. Lanier Collections Agency & Service, Inc., 486 U. S. 825, 486 U. S. 834-838 (1988) (where federal law does not establish an enforcement mechanism for collecting ERISA judgments, state mechanisms not preempted); Robertson v. Wegmann, 436 U. S. 584, 436 U. S. 594 (1978) (application of state survivorship rule to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is not preempted because rule does not impair federally secured right). Rather they directly conflict with the purposes of the federal statute. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 649
As an initial matter, we reject petitioner's view that AWPA's failure to speak directly to the preemption of state exclusivity provisions creates a statutory "gap" within the meaning of @ 467 U. S. 843 (1984), that Congress intended the Department of Labor to fill. A "gap" is not created in a statutory scheme merely because a statute does not restate the truism that States may not preempt federal law.
Moreover, even if AWPA's language establishing a private right of action is ambiguous, we need not defer to the Secretary of Labor's view of the scope of § 1854, because Congress has expressly established the Judiciary, and not the Department of Labor, as the adjudicator of private rights of action arising under the statute. A precondition to deference under Chevron is a congressional delegation of administrative authority. Bowen v. Georgetown University Hospital, 488 U. S. 204, 488 U. S. 208 (1988). See also NLRB v. Food and Commercial Workers, 484 U. S. 112, 484 U. S. 123 (1987) (Chevron review of agency interpretations of statutes applies only to regulations "promulgated pursuant to congressional authority"); Crandon v. United States, 494 U. S. 152, 494 U. S. 177 (1990) (SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment) (rejecting Chevron deference chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 650
where the statute "is not administered by any agency, but by the courts"); cf. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms v. FLRA, 464 U. S. 89, 464 U. S. 97 (1983) (refusing to sanction "unauthorized assumption by an agency of major policy decisions'" (quoting American Ship Building Co. v. NLRB, 380 U. S. 300, 380 U. S. No such delegation regarding AWPA's enforcement provisions is evident in the statute. Rather, Congress established an enforcement scheme independent of the Executive and provided aggrieved farmworkers with direct recourse to federal court where their rights under the statute are violated. Under such circumstances, it would be inappropriate to consult executive interpretations of § 1854 to resolve ambiguities surrounding the scope of AWPA's judicially enforceable remedy.
Our review of the language and structure of AWPA leads us to conclude that AWPA does not establish workers' compensation benefits as an exclusive remedy under § 1854, even chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Page 494 U. S. 651
where state workers' compensation schemes purport to establish their benefits as exclusive of all other relief. [Footnote 5] Accordingly, the decision of the Court of Appeals is affirmed.