Source: http://www.leagle.com/decision/19801840613F2d1227_11666
Timestamp: 2014-03-11 17:43:19
Document Index: 37851180

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1916', '§ 651', '§ 651', '§ 651', '§ 654', '§ 655', '§ 655', '§ 1916', '§ 941', '§ 1916', '§ 1916', '§ 1916', '§ 1916', '§ 1910', 'arts 1915', '§ 1910', '§ 903']

DRAVO CORP. v. OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, ETC. | Leagle.com Home
Citing Case DRAVO CORP. v. OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, ETC.No. 79-1435. 613 F.2d 1227 (1980) DRAVO CORPORATION, Petitioner,
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH REVIEW COMMISSION and Ray Marshall, Secretary of Labor, Respondents.
November 13, 1979.Decided January 14, 1980. Charles R. Volk (argued), Jane A. Lewis, Thorp, Reed & Armstrong, Pittsburgh, Pa., for petitioner.Ann D. Nachbar (argued), Ronald R. Glancz, Allen H. Feldman, Acting Counsel for Appellate Litigation, Carin A. Clauss, Sol. of Labor, Benjamin W. Mintz, Associate Sol. for Occupational Safety and Health, Nancy L. Southard, Acting Asst. Counsel for Appellate Litigation, U. S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C., Marshall H. Harris, Regional Sol., U. S. Dept. of Labor, Philadelphia, Pa., for respondents.Before SEITZ, Chief Judge, ALDISERT, Circuit Judge, and HUYETT, District Judge. OPINION OF THE COURT
Dravo's structural shop is a general fabrication shop in which metal plates are formed, sized, and welded. The operations of the structural shop, as in any general industry fabrication shop, include processes by which metal is formed with the use of press brakes, shears, angle rolls, punch and coping machines, burning machines and welders. These plates are used in the assembly of all of Dravo's major products. Those that are to become parts of vessels are carried by railroad car from the shop on the southern side of the island across the public road that bisects the island and the plant to the boat yard area on the northern side of the island where the vessels are assembled and eventually launched. At least one barge has been assembled in the structural shop. App. at 224a-26a. Faced with this evidence, including testimony that in 1977, "51 percent of the work in the Structural Shop was marine related, that is, the product went into a boat or a barge," while "[t]he balance of the work involved material handling machinery [27%], pelletizing machines, gait hoists [20%] and spare parts [remaining per cent]," App. at 225a, 1034a-35a, the ALJ determined that maritime standards applied to activities in that shop.
The test adopted by the ALJ appears to be that if the major part of the work in a shop at a given time is "shipbuilding" by definition of OSHA regulation 29 C.F.R. § 1916.2(i), that is, "the construction of a vessel, including the installation of machinery and equipment," then the shipbuilding safety standards will apply. In announcing this formula he rejected the approach taken in another proceeding involving Dravo Corporation at OSHRC Docket No. 14818. Dravo Corp., [1976-77] OSH Dec. (CCH) ¶ 20,787 (1976). There, in determining the appropriate standards for Dravo's pipe shop, the ALJ concluded that even though ninety per cent of the pipe shop's production was incorporated into vessels, shipbuilding standards should not apply. Relying on a Fourth Circuit decision subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court, he determined that the applicability of those standards should be limited to shipbuilding and related activities between the ship and the last "point of rest" of equipment. Dravo has thus been confronted in separate OSHRC proceedings with divergent formulations for determining what areas are to be held to shipbuilding safety standards under OSHA.
The central purpose of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 29 U.S.C. § 651 et seq., is "to assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions . . .." 29 U.S.C. § 651(b). The Act authorizes the Secretary of Labor "to set mandatory occupational safety and health standards applicable to businesses affecting interstate commerce," and created the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission "for carrying out adjudicatory functions [of the Act]." 29 U.S.C. § 651(b)(3). Each statutory employer is placed under a duty to comply with the promulgated standards. 29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(2). Normally, the Secretary's standard-setting authority is to be exercised as the product of notice and comment rule-making. 29 U.S.C. § 655(b). Within the first two years after the effective date of the Act, however, because of concern that the Act be implemented as soon as possible, Congress authorized the Secretary to "promulgate as an occupational safety or health standard . . . any established Federal standard," without regard to the rule-making provisions. 29 U.S.C. § 655(a).
Because we deal here with a penal sanction, we begin with a recognition that the coverage of an agency regulation should be no broader than what is encompassed within its terms. Accordingly, we note that definitions for both "employer" and "employee" limit coverage of the OSHA shipbuilding regulations to maritime work on "the navigable waters . . ., including dry docks, graving docks, and marine railways." 29 C.F.R. §§ 1916.2(c) & (d), supra notes 5 & 6. These definitions do not include structural fabrication shops within their scope; they include only waters, docks, and marine railways.
Dravo's position that OSHA coverage should be narrower than LHWCA coverage presents a more difficult issue. As we have noted, the purpose of these OSHA standards is to prevent injury to those harbor workers who, if injured, would be eligible for compensation under LHWCA. Longshoremen, for instance, are covered under LHWCA if they spend "at least some of their time in indisputably longshoring operations," in activities that are an integral part of the process of maritime industry. Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, 432 U.S. at 273, 97 S.Ct. 2348, 2362, 53 L.Ed.2d 320; P.C. Pfeiffer Co. v. Ford, ___ U.S. ___, ___ n.18, 100 S.Ct. 328, 337 n.18, 62 L.Ed.2d 225 (1979).9 But, as the Supreme Court noted, LHWCA focuses on workers "solely in terms of what they are doing and never in terms of where they are working." Id. at ___, 100 S.Ct. at 336. Thus, although the "majority of the work" test used here by the ALJ arguably finds some support in our Maxin decision, because of the distinction between compensation and enforcement of a penal sanction, we believe that a LHWCA compensation case cannot be controlling in an OSHRC case.10
Dravo would have us adopt the reasoning of another ALJ in a proceeding at OSHRC Docket No. 14818. Dravo Corp., [1976-77] OSH Dec. (CCH) ¶ 20,787 (1976). There, the ALJ rejected applicability of the shipbuilding standards to Dravo's pipe shop although ninety percent of the work done there was marine work. But the ALJ relied on I.T.O. Corp. v. Benefits Review Board, 529 F.2d 1080 (4th Cir. 1975), vacated, 433 U.S. 904, 97 S.Ct. 2967, 53 L.Ed.2d 1088 (1977). Because the only case cited in that OSHRC decision was vacated and remanded for reconsideration in light of Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, 432 U.S. 249, 97 S.Ct. 2348, 53 L.Ed.2d 320, and because the decision erroneously relied on the "last point of rest" doctrine rejected by this court in Sea-Land Service, Inc. v. Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, 540 F.2d 629 (3d Cir. 1976), and by the Supreme Court in Northeast Marine Terminal Co., we reject Dravo's suggestion that we rely on the reasoning of that opinion in order to determine what areas are governed by OSHA's shipbuilding standards.
Accordingly, even in areas properly citable under specific maritime standards, the Secretary may hold an employer to the general industry standards in those situations where no specific standard is applicable.
FootNotes* Honorable Daniel H. Huyett, 3rd, of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, sitting by designation.1. 33 U.S.C. § 941, entitled "Safety rules and regulations," provides in relevant part:
(a) Every employer shall furnish and maintain employment and places of employment which shall be reasonably safe for his employees in all employments covered by this chapter and shall install, furnish, maintain, and use such devices and safeguards with particular reference to equipment used by and working conditions established by such employers as the Secretary may determine by regulation or order to be reasonably necessary to protect the life, health, and safety of such employees, and to render safe such employment and places of employment, and to prevent injury to his employees.2. A violation of an OSHA regulation does not, however, create a private right of action against an employer for violation of its terms. Jeter v. St. Regis Paper Co., 507 F.2d 973 (5th Cir. 1975).3. 29 C.F.R. § 1916.2(i) provides: "The term `shipbuilding' means the construction of a vessel, including the installation of machinery and equipment."4. 29 C.F.R. § 1916.2(j) provides: "The term `related employment' means any employments performed as an incident to or in conjunction with shipbuilding work including, but not restricted to inspection, testing trials and employment as a watchman."5. 29 C.F.R. § 1916.2(c) provides:
The term "employer" means an employer any of whose employees are employed in maritime employment, in whole or in part, upon the navigable waters of the United States, including dry docks, graving docks, and marine railways, and any of whose employees are employed, in whole or in part, in shipbuilding or related employments as defined in paragraphs (i) and (j) of this section, on the navigable waters of the United States, including dry docks, graving docks, and marine railways.6. 29 C.F.R. § 1916.2(d) provides: "The term `employee' means any person employed in shipbuilding or related employments on the navigable waters of the United States, including dry docks, graving docks and marine railways, by an employer as defined in paragraph (c) of this section."7. See, e. g., 29 C.F.R. § 1910.11(b), entitled "Scope and purpose," under "Subpart B — Adoption and Extension of Established Federal Standards," which provides in pertinent part:
It bears emphasis that only standards (i. e., substantive rules) relating to safety or health are adopted by any incorporations by reference of standards prescribed elsewhere in this chapter or this title. Other materials contained in the referenced parties are not adopted. Illustrations of the types of materials which are not adopted are these. The incorporations by reference of Parts 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918 in §§ 1910.13, 1910.14, 1910.15, and 1910.16 are not intended to include the discussion in those parts of the coverage of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act or the penalty provisions of the Act.8. The status and situs tests were subsequently approved by the Supreme Court in Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, 432 U.S. 249, 97 S.Ct. 2348, 53 L.Ed.2d 320 (1977).9. In light of the Supreme Court's determination that "some of the time" is sufficient to trigger applicability of LHWCA, our designation of the fact that the "great majority of the work performed in the shop is related to shipbuilding or ship repair," Dravo Corp. v. Maxin, 545 F.2d at 381, as one of four factors which influenced our decision in Maxin may have reflected too narrow an interpretation of the appropriate LHWCA standard.10. We would have no trouble distinguishing Maxin in any event because in 1973, the year of Maxin's injury, the work of the structural shop was 85% marine work, 545 F.2d at 376, but in 1977, this figure was down to 51%, a percentage which cannot be characterized as a "great majority."11. 33 U.S.C. § 903(a) provides for compensation for injuries "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)." Comment