Opinion ID: $opinion_id
Heading Depth: 1.0
Heading Rank: 1

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Text: The facts are not in dispute. Respondent Perini North River Associates (Perini) contracted to build the foundation of a sewage treatment plant that extends approximately 700 feet over the Hudson River between 135th and 145th Streets in Manhattan. The project required that Perini place large, hollow circular pipes called caissons in the river, down to embedded rock, fill the caissons with concrete, connect the caissons together above the water with concrete beams, and place precast concrete slabs on the beams. The caissons were delivered by rail to the shore, where they were loaded onto supply barges and towed across the river to await unloading and installation.

The injured worker, Raymond Churchill, was an employee of Perini in charge of all work performed on a cargo barge used to unload caissons and other materials from the supply barges and to set caissons in position for insertion into the embedded rock. Churchill was on the deck of the cargo barge giving directions to a crane operator engaged in unloading a caisson from a supply barge when a line used to keep the caissons in position snapped and struck Churchill. He sustained injuries to his head, leg, and thumb.[4]

Churchill filed a claim for compensation under the LHWCA. Perini denied that Churchill was covered by the Act, and after a formal hearing pursuant to § 19 of the Act, 33 U.S. C. § 919 (1976 ed. and Supp. V), an Administrative Law Judge determined that Churchill was not "engaged in maritime employment" under § 2(3) of the Act because his job lacked "some relationship to navigation and commerce on navigable waters." App. to Pet. for Cert. 31a. Churchill and the Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs *301 (Director), appealed to the Benefits Review Board, pursuant to § 21(b)(3) of the Act, 33 U.S. C. § 921(b)(3). The Board affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's denial of coverage, on the theory that marine construction workers involved in building facilities not ultimately used in navigation or commerce upon navigable waters are not engaged in "maritime employment." 12 BRBS 929, 933 (1980).[5] One Board Member dissented, arguing that "all injuries sustained in the course of employment by employees over `navigable waters' as that term was defined prior to the 1972 Amendments, are covered under the [amended] Act." Id., at 935.[6]

Churchill then sought review of the Board's decision in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, under § 21(c) of the Act, 33 U.S. C. § 921(c).[7] The Director participated as respondent, and filed a brief in support of Churchill's position. The Second Circuit denied Churchill's petition, relying on its decision in Fusco v. Perini North River Associates, 622 F.2d 1111 (1980), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1131 (1981). According to the Second Circuit, Churchill was not in "maritime employment" because his employment lacked a " `significant relationship to navigation or to commerce on navigable waters.' " Churchill v. Perini North River Associates, 652 F.2d 255, 256, n. 1 (1981). The Director now seeks review of the Second Circuit denial of Churchill's petition. The Director agrees with the position taken by the dissenting member of the Benefits Review Board: the LHWCA does not require *302 that an employee show that his employment possesses a "significant relationship to navigation or to commerce," where, as here, the employee is injured while working upon the actual navigable waters in the course of his employment, and would have been covered under the pre-1972 LHWCA.[8]