Opinion ID: 365601
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Amended Section 909 Applies.

Text: 13 Nothing in the 1972 Amendments states that the death benefit in cases of permanent total disability provided by the amendment to Section 909 shall not be applicable when the disabling injury occurred before the effective date of the amendment but the death occurred after that date. Nothing in the legislative history suggests that Congress intended that the amended section should not apply in such a case. 14 A representative of the maritime industry did urge both houses to adopt a generalized amendment which would have had that effect. See Hearings before the Sub-Committee on Labor of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, U. S. Senate, 92d Cong., 2d Sess. on S.2318, S.525 and S.1547 at 314, 360 (1972); Hearings before the Select Subcomm. on Labor of the Comm. on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, 92d Cong., 2d Sess. on H.R.247, H.R.3505, H.R.12006, and H.R.15023 at 115, 131-32 (1972). (Testimony of Edward D. Vickery.) Congress, however, did not do so. Instead, it simply provided that The amendments . . . shall become effective thirty days after the date of enactment of this Act. Pub.L. 92-572, § 22, 86 Stat. at 1265. 15 Where Congress meant to restrict the applicability of a particular provision of the 1972 Amendments, as in the case of its elimination of the longshoremen's unseaworthiness remedy and of shipowner indemnity actions, it expressed its intentions through carefully constructed legislative history. See, e. g., 118 Cong.Rec. 36382 (Statement of Congressman Daniels); 118 Cong.Rec. 36384 (colloquy among Congressmen Burton, Quie and Eckhardt). Accord, Hanseatische Reederei Emil Offen & Company v. Marine Terminals Corporation, 9 Cir., 1979, 590 F.2d 778, 782, n.1. 16 In Dillingham Corporation v. Massey, 9 Cir., 1974, 505 F.2d 1126, 1129, we followed Overseas African Construction Corp. v. McMullen, 2 Cir., 1974, 500 F.2d 1291, 1297, relying upon an absence of restrictive legislative history to uphold an award of attorneys' fees pursuant to the 1972 amendment to 33 U.S.C. § 928(b), even though the case in question arose before the 1972 Amendments. So here, in the absence of restrictive legislative history pertaining to amended § 909, we hold the amended provision fully applicable to claims based upon death occurring on or after November 26, 1972. St. Louis Shipbuilding and Steel Company v. Casteel, 8 Cir., 1978, 583 F.2d 876, 877; Nacirema Operating Company v. Lynn, 3 Cir., 1978, 577 F.2d 852, 853-54; State Insurance Fund v. Pesce, 2 Cir., 1977, 548 F.2d 1112, 1114. See also Norfolk, Baltimore and Carolina Lines, Inc. v. Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, United States Department of Labor, 4 Cir., 1976, 539 F.2d 378, 380. 17 Petitioners also argue that our interpretation of the amending language so conflicts with the meaning of other provisions of the Act that were not amended as to render the application of amended § 909 utterly impossible. Congress apparently did neglect to amend some of these provisions to reflect the broadened availability of death benefits under amended § 909. Nevertheless, (d)espite the possible incongruities . . ., the intention of Congress . . . remains altogether clear and intelligible. Norfolk Lines, supra, 539 F.2d at 380. The Department of Labor and the appellate courts should have little difficulty in construing these technical provisions in light of amended § 909's overriding purpose. If there is a genuine conflict between amended § 909 and other, unnamed, provisions, § 909, as the later enactment, prevails. 18