Opinion ID: 336332
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Impact of the 1972 Amendments

Text: 14 Parker next contends that even if his claim was not cognizable in admiralty prior to the enactment of the 1972 Amendments to the LHWCA, 5 the passage of those Amendments had the effect of extending admiralty jurisdiction sufficiently to embrace his claim. His argument takes note of the fact that the Amendments broadened coverage under the Act to make compensation available 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. 33 U.S.C. § 903(a) (as amended). Essentially, his contention seems to be that in view of this broadened coverage, it necessarily follows that admiralty jurisdiction with regard to third party claims such as his own had experienced a parallel widening. The fact that compensation coverage was expanded to ensure that the availability of compensation benefits would no longer depend upon the fortuitous circumstance of whether the injury occurred on land or over water, 6 however, does not imply that admiralty jurisdiction has been extended to embrace non-compensation claims brought by employees against parties other than their employers. Indeed, a careful reading of the provision of the 1972 Amendments governing third party actions and the pertinent legislative history leads us to the opposite conclusion. 15 The provision in question effectuated a fundamental restructuring of the rights and remedies available to harbor workers in third party actions. Specifically, it provides: 16 In the event of injury to a person covered under this chapter caused by the negligence of a vessel, then such person, or anyone otherwise entitled to recover damages by reason thereof, may bring an action against such vessel as a third party . . . and the employer shall not be liable to the vessel for such damages directly or indirectly and any agreements or warranties to the contrary shall be void. . . . The liability of the vessel under this subsection shall not be based upon the warranty of seaworthiness or a breach thereof at the time the injury occurred. 17 33 U.S.C. § 905(b). 7 The principal aim of this section was to legislatively overrule Seas Shipping Co. v. Sieracki, 328 U.S. 85, 66 S.Ct. 872, 90 L.Ed. 1099 (1946) and Ryan Stevedoring Co. v. Pan-Atlantic Steamship Corp., 350 U.S. 124, 76 S.Ct. 232, 100 L.Ed. 133 (1956), which allowed an injured employee to impose indirect liability on his employer for damages in excess of compensation limits. Thus, section 905(b) is primarily designed to prevent continued circumvention of section 905(a) of the LHWCA, which makes compensation the employee's exclusive remedy against his employer. 18 Of particular importance in the present case is the fact that section 905(b) eliminates only an injured worker's right to bring actions against third parties based on unseaworthiness, and preserves his right under prior law to recover for third party negligence. Although the relevant legislative history created some confusion by failing to specify with sufficient clarity the precise standard of care to be applied in such third party negligence actions, 8 it leaves little doubt that Congress did not intend section 905(b) to create a new or broader cause of action in admiralty: 19 The purpose of the amendments is to place an employee injured aboard a vessel in the same position he would be if he were injured in non-maritime employment ashore, insofar as bringing a third party damage action is concerned, and not to endow him with any special maritime theory of liability or cause of action under whatever judicial nomenclature it may be called, such as unseaworthiness, non-delegable duty, or the like. 20 Persons to whom compensation is payable under the Act retain the right to recover damages for negligence against the vessel, but under these amendments they cannot bring a damage action under the judicially-enacted doctrine of unseaworthiness. 21 1972 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at p. 4703 (emphasis added). Taken as a whole, the manifest purpose of section 905(b) is to curtail rather than expand the availability of third party actions in admiralty. With respect to third party actions for negligence, the reasonable inference is that the boundaries of maritime jurisdiction as defined under prior law (e. g., Victory Carriers ) were neither expanded nor constricted by passage of the 1972 Amendments, but simply retained. Accordingly, Parker can draw no jurisdictional solace from the shoreward extension of compensation coverage under the Amendments, since at least with regard to third party negligence claims such as those involved in his case, the Amendments envisage no parallel extension of admiralty jurisdiction.