Source: https://openjurist.org/112/f3d/592/wood-v-united-states-department-of-labor
Timestamp: 2019-12-12 00:34:39
Document Index: 266202505

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 908', '§ 908', '§ 908', '§ 902', '§ 908', '§ 922', '§ 921', '§ 101', '§ 921', '§ 908', '§ 908', '§ 908']

112 F3d 592 Wood v. United States Department of Labor | OpenJurist
112 F. 3d 592 - Wood v. United States Department of Labor
112 F3d 592 Wood v. United States Department of Labor
112 F.3d 592
Michael D. WOOD, Petitioner,
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Bath Iron Works
No. 96-2055.
In March 1991, an Administrative Law Judge in the Labor Department awarded Wood total disability payments for two days in December 1988, immediately following his dismissal from Bath, 33 U.S.C. § 908(a), and partial disability payments for about two months thereafter based on the difference between the $356 weekly pay Woods had earned as an insulator at Bath and his actual wages earned thereafter (working for other employers). 33 U.S.C. § 908(c)(21). Because the new job Wood took with Bath as a delivery driver in February 1990 paid more than his old insulator wages, he was awarded no disability benefits after his reemployment date.
In the meantime, Wood had renewed his claim for disability benefits. In August 1991, Wood sought new benefits for partial disability under 33 U.S.C. § 908(c)(21); the Act defines disability as "incapacity because of injury to earn the wages which the employee was receiving at the time of injury." Id. § 902(10). Wood claimed that his Shortsville earnings accurately reflected his present earning capacity, see id. § 908(h), and asked that his earlier disability award be modified, as provided by 33 U.S.C. § 922, based on the gap between his pre-injury Bath insulator wages and his lower Shortsville earnings.
In December 1993, Wood appealed the portion of the decision denying benefits after March 1993 to the Labor Department's Benefits Review Board, as allowed by 33 U.S.C. § 921(b). On September 12, 1996, the Review Board sent Wood a notice pursuant to Pub.L. 104-134, § 101(d), 110 Stat. 1321-219 (1996), stating that the decision was to be considered affirmed for purposes of appeal to this court. Wood filed a motion for reconsideration which the Review Board denied. He then filed a notice of appeal to this court pursuant to 33 U.S.C. § 921(c).
In reviewing such compensation decisions, this court normally accepts the ALJ's findings of fact where they are supported by substantial evidence, and reviews legal questions de novo. CNA Ins. Co. v. Legrow, 935 F.2d 430, 433 (1st Cir.1991). The central issue in our case, however, does not neatly fit within these polar categories. Our main task here is to discern standards--an amalgam of law and policy--to cope with a recurring problem with many variations: how earning capacity should be calculated when the employee, after the injury, moves to a new community.
We begin with the Act. For some partial disabilities (e.g., the loss of a finger), the Act schedules a payment, 33 U.S.C. §§ 908(c)(1)-(20), but for unscheduled injuries such as Wood's, the Act requires that the employee's reduced earning capacity be determined; the employer is then required to pay regularly two thirds of the difference between the employee's pre-injury wages and his post-injury reduced earning capacity. Id. §§ 908(c)(21), 908(e). Actual post-injury earnings are evidence of capacity but are not conclusive. Id. § 908(h).
Wood's earnings in Shortsville were less than his pre-injury wages as a insulator at Bath. The employer has the burden of proving that the claimant's earning capacity is greater than his actual earnings. Avondale Shipyards, Inc. v. Guidry, 967 F.2d 1039, 1042-43 (5th Cir.1992). Here, Bath does not claim that Wood could have earned more in Shortsville; but it says that its own offer shows that he could have exceeded his own pre-injury wages in Bath. The ALJ so found, at least implicitly, and Wood does not directly dispute the finding.
This is a typical problem presented in an age of statutes; the Act's language does not squarely answer the question posed, and often enough Congress never gave a thought to the issue. Sometimes the responsible agency fills in such lacunae through regulation, but not so here. Even so, in the normal case, the agency's individual case decisions tend to mark out a pattern that deserves substantial deference, see SEC v. Chenery Corp., 332 U.S. 194, 202-03, 67 S.Ct. 1575, 1580-81, 91 L.Ed. 1995 (1947), and the agency's application of general standards to specific facts is usually upheld if "reasonably defensible." Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U.S. 883, 891, 104 S.Ct. 2803, 2808, 81 L.Ed.2d 732 (1984).
Thus, contrary to the usual administrative scheme, it is unclear to what extent the ALJ and Review Board reflect the policymaker's viewpoint. Indeed, the Supreme Court has declared that "the Benefits Review Board is not a policymaking agency; its interpretation of the [Act] thus is not entitled to any special deference from the courts." Potomac Elec. Power Co. v. Director, OWCP, 449 U.S. 268, 278 n. 18, 101 S.Ct. 509, 515 n. 18, 66 L.Ed.2d 446 (1980); see Director, OWCP v. General Dynamics Corp., 982 F.2d 790, 794-95 (2d Cir.1992) (deference due to OWCP but not Review Board); see also Martin v. Occupational Safety & Health Review Comm'n, 499 U.S. 144, 152-57, 111 S.Ct. 1171, 1176-79, 113 L.Ed.2d 117 (1991).
The only circuit court precedent directly on point endorses an "on the facts" approach. See v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Auth., 36 F.3d 375 (4th Cir.1994). There the court ruled:
As to what constitutes justification, we agree that economic judgments ought generally to control. Care for an aged parent is to be commended; but a claimant who turns down a better job elsewhere for personal reasons has a much weaker claim to be subsidized by the employer. See Nguyen, 19 B.R.B.S. at 145. Some state courts may be more liberal;2 but until Congress (or possibly the Secretary) decides otherwise, we think that the Review Board's economic emphasis is consistent with the Act's own goals of fair compensation and encouragement of work. See New Orleans (Gulfwide) Stevedores v. Turner, 661 F.2d 1031, 1042 (5th Cir.1981).
We turn finally to the decision of the ALJ in this case. While the ALJ may have no "policy" authority, deference is still ordinarily due to the frontline adjudicator in applying general standards to particular facts. See Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 488, 71 S.Ct. 456, 464-65, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951). This is a different kind of respect than deference to a policymaker. It is the deference ordinarily accorded by appeals courts to trial courts, based on their superior feel for the facts and the situation, even where the standards to be applied are well settled. See, e.g., United States v. Cruz-Kuilan, 75 F.3d 59, 61 (1st Cir.1996).
The Chenery doctrine--that the agency must be judged upon the grounds it has given--thus warrants a remand for further proceedings. See SEC v. Chenery Corp., 318 U.S. 80, 87-88, 63 S.Ct. 454, 459-60, 87 L.Ed. 626 (1943). Wood's move to Shortsville has not been challenged. Thus, on remand the ALJ should treat Shortsville as presumptively the relevant community for determining Wood's earning capacity, unless and until Bath proves that his decision to remain there was unreasonable, taking account centrally of economic factors, or that this is the rare case of undue prejudice.
See, e.g., Hurley v. Stuart Fine Foods, 687 So.2d 310, 311 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1997) (where claimant moved away to live with parents, benefits due absent evidence that the move was improperly motivated (i.e., by a desire to avoid work)); Kurrell v. National Con Rod, Inc., 322 N.W.2d 199, 202 (Minn.1982) (even if move was motivated by exclusively personal reasons, disability benefits due as long as claimant made an "earnest effort to return to the work force" in the new community)
Without advocating the use of intermediate adjustments (which would present obvious potential complications), we note that the language of section 908(h) does seem to allow significant latitude; and several courts, including this one, have concluded that it supports adjustments for inflation. See, e.g., White v. Bath Iron Works Corp., 812 F.2d 33, 35 (1st Cir.1987)