Opinion ID: 547044
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 2 On October 1, 1973, Bowen, a pile driver foreman for the Alaska Interstate Company, sustained a disabling injury when struck by a clump of clay dropped 20 to 30 feet from a crane. Bowen sought compensation for his disability under the LHWCA. Deputy Commissioner Reginald Johnson investigated the claim and determined that Bowen was temporarily totally disabled from October 30, 1973 to April 30, 1975 and from November 30, 1977 to April 26, 1979, and permanently totally disabled thereafter. Johnson found that the employer/carrier had voluntarily paid Bowen compensation in the amount of $210.54 per week for the periods of temporary total disability, the maximum compensation rate in effect at the time of the injury. 1 Johnson ordered that after the injury became permanent Bowen was entitled to cost-of-living adjustments pursuant to Sec. 10(f) of the Act. 2 Accordingly, Johnson determined that the employer/carrier's weekly compensation obligation from April 27, 1979 through September 30, 1979 would be $396.78; from October 1, 1979 through September 30, 1980, $426.56; and from October 1, 1980 through April 23, 1981, $451.42, a total of 104 weeks. These figures represented adjustments to Bowen's $210.54 compensation rate that included the total annual increases in the cost of living since October 1, 1973. In accordance with Sec. 8(f) of the Act, 33 U.S.C. Sec. 908(f), Johnson ruled that compensation for all subsequent periods of disability would be payable from the Special Fund established in Section 44 of the Act. Johnson filed his order with the National Office of the Director of the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP). 3 Upon review of the order, the Director notified the Fourteenth Compensation District that Deputy Commissioner Johnson had miscalculated the compensation due Bowen by giving him, at the time his disability became permanent, the benefit of all cost-of-living increases between the determination of his temporary total disability and the onset of his permanent total disability. Accordingly, Deputy Commissioner Collis Overton amended the order, giving Bowen the benefit of the cost-of-living increases occurring only after he became permanently totally disabled. The amended award was as follows: temporary disability from October 30, 1973 to April 30, 1975, and from November 30, 1977 to April 26, 1979 at the weekly rate of $210.54; permanent total disability from April 27, 1979 to September 30, 1979 at the weekly rate of $210.54, from October 1, 1979 through September 30, 1980 at the weekly rate of $226.00, and from October 1, 1980 through April 23, 1981 at the weekly rate of $240.00. 4 Bowen appealed the amended compensation order to the BRB, suggesting that Deputy Commissioner Johnson's construction of the statute was correct. The BRB affirmed, noting that its holding was consistent with its prior rulings. See Phillips v. Marine Concrete Structures, Inc., 21 B.R.B.S. 233, 236-37 (1988); Scott v. Lockheed Shipbuilding & Constr. Co., 18 B.R.B.S. 246, 249 (1986). Bowen now challenges this BRB ruling. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 33 U.S.C. Sec. 921(c).