Opinion ID: 365601
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Application of Amended Section 909 is Constitutional.

Text: 19 Petitioners bear the burden of overcoming the presumption of constitutionality which attaches to amended § 909 as a legislative Act( ) adjusting the burdens and benefits of economic life. Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co., 1976, 428 U.S. 1, 15, 96 S.Ct. 2882, 2892, 49 L.Ed.2d 752. 20 Petitioners say that amended § 909 denies them due process by retroactively trenching upon their vested rights. This argument rests on the premise that Petitioners' rights vis a vis the now deceased harbor workers' eventual survivors became fixed as of the date those harbor workers suffered their totally and permanently disabling injuries. We conclude, however, that amended § 909 does not retroactively affect vested rights. The deaths of Harold Witthuhn and Clarence Foley gave rise to new claims for relief not in existence during their lifetimes. When they died, after November 26, 1972, their survivors' rights to death benefits first vested, and at that time the Amendments had taken effect. It could not be known, until the deaths occurred, whether there would be any eligible survivor(s) or, if so, who those survivor(s) would be. Thus amended § 909 operates prospectively when applied to the cases before us. See St. Louis Shipbuilding and Steel Company, supra, 583 F.2d at 877; 1 State Insurance Fund v. Pesce, supra, 548 F.2d at 1114; Travelers Insurance v. Toner, 1951, 89 U.S.App.D.C. 77, 78, 190 F.2d 30, 31; Hampton Roads Stevedoring Corp. v. O'Hearne, 4 Cir., 1950, 184 F.2d 76, 79; Penn Jersey Welding Co. v. Lowe, 3 Cir., 1950, 183 F.2d 936, 937-38; Hitt v. Cardillo, 1942, 76 U.S.App.D.C. 334, 335, 131 F.2d 233, 234; Norton v. Travelers Insurance Co., 3 Cir., 1939, 105 F.2d 122, 123-24; International Mercantile Marine Co. v. Lowe, 2 Cir., 1938, 93 F.2d 663, 665. 21 Moreover, even if we were to agree that to apply amended § 909 would be to give it a retroactive effect, we would still uphold its constitutionality. (W)hile statutes of retrospective force are not favored, they are not per se unconstitutional. Norfolk, Baltimore and Carolina Lines, Inc. v. Director, Office of Workers' Programs, supra, 539 F.2d at 380. 22 In the recent case of Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co., supra, the Supreme Court rejected a quite similar due process attack on the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 as amended by the Black Lung Benefits Act of 1972, 30 U.S.C. § 901 Et seq. The statute provided death benefits to the survivors of miners irrebuttably presumed to have died from pneumoconiosis (black lung disease). The Court conceded that the Act has some retrospective effect and that the liability imposed upon mine operators for disabilities suffered by former employees may not have been anticipated at the time of actual employment, 428 U.S. at 16, 96 S.Ct. at 2892, 2893. The Court nevertheless upheld the law. 23 . . . (O)ur cases are clear that legislation readjusting rights and burdens is not unlawful solely because it upsets otherwise settled expectations. . . . This is true even though the effect of the legislation is to impose a new duty or liability based on past acts. 24 428 U.S. at 16, 96 S.Ct. at 2893 (citations omitted). 25 After stating that it would hesitate to approve the retrospective imposition of liability on any theory of deterrence . . . or blameworthiness, 428 U.S. at 17-18, 96 S.Ct. at 2893, the Court upheld the law on a basis directly applicable to the cases before us. The Court held the imposition of liability for harms bred in the past justified as a rational measure to spread the costs of the employees' disabilities to those who have profited from the fruits of their labor, 428 U.S. at 18, 96 S.Ct. at 2893. 26 The Petitioners argue that where a totally and permanently disabled harbor worker dies from causes other than his injury, the employer's activities cannot fairly be said to have given rise to the harms. The Court rejected precisely this distinction in Usery in upholding a combination of irrebuttable presumptions whose effect was to grant benefits to the survivors of any miner who during his lifetime had complicated pneumoconiosis arising out of employment in the mines, regardless of whether the miner's death was caused by pneumoconiosis. 428 U.S. at 24, 96 S.Ct. at 2896. The Court reasoned that the death benefits of the miner's survivors served as deferred compensation for the suffering endured by his dependents by virtue of his illness. 428 U.S. at 24, 96 S.Ct. at 2897. The total, permanent disabilities suffered by Harold Witthuhn and Clarence Foley arose out of their employment with Todd. The deferred compensation rationale fully applies. We add only that Congress could well have reasoned that many disabled harbor workers would find themselves hard pressed to provide financial security for their families and thus that in many cases the assurance of the amended § 909 death benefit would help relieve a common source of frustration, anxiety, and concern. We cannot say that the Congressional scheme lacks a rational basis in that it is wholly unreasonable in providing benefits for those who were most likely to have shared the miner's suffering. Usery, supra, 428 U.S. at 25-26, 96 S.Ct. at 2897; St. Louis Shipbuilding, supra, 583 F.2d at 878; Nacirema Operating Co., supra, 577 F.2d at 854. 27 We join the Second, Third, Fourth, and Eighth Circuits in holding that the alleged retroactive impact of amended § 909 does not deprive the employer of due process. See State Insurance Fund v. Pesce, supra, 548 F.2d at 1115; Nacirema Operating Company v. Lynn, supra, 577 F.2d at 854; Norfolk, Baltimore and Carolina Lines, Inc., supra, 539 F.2d at 380-81; St. Louis Shipbuilding and Steel Company v. Casteel, supra, 583 F.2d at 878. 28 Todd and Travelers also argue that amended § 909 violates the Contract Clause, Art. 1, § 10 of the Constitution, by upsetting expectations that they relied upon in entering into their contract for compensation insurance. This argument is without merit. To begin with, the Supreme Court has never held the Contract Clause applicable to federal as opposed to state action. See Norfolk Lines, supra, 539 F.2d at 381. 29 Moreover, even if the Contract Clause were incorporated into Fifth Amendment due process by analogy to Bolling v. Sharpe, 1954, 347 U.S. 497, 74 S.Ct. 693, 98 L.Ed. 884, that would not help Petitioners. Their expectations that the government would not require Todd to pay death benefits did not give rise to vested rights which could not be modified retroactively. As the Court explained last term in Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus, 1978, 438 U.S. 234, 241-42, 98 S.Ct. 2716, 57 L.Ed.2d 727, quoting Mr. Justice Holmes in Hudson County Water Co. v. McCarter, 1908,209 U.S. 349, 357, 28 S.Ct. 529, 531-532, 52 L.Ed. 828: 30 One whose rights, such as they are, are subject to state restriction, cannot remove them from the power of the state by making a contract about them. The contract will carry with it the infirmity of the subject-matter. 31 Immunity from federal regulation is not gained through forehanded contracts. Fleming v. Rhodes, 1947, 331 U.S. 100, 107, 67 S.Ct. 1140, 1144, 91 L.Ed. 1368. 32 Finally, Petitioners argue that the death benefits provided by amended § 909 have no maritime nexus and are thus beyond the power to regulate maritime affairs which Congress derives from the constitutional grant of admiralty jurisdiction. Here, a shipyard has been ordered to pay death benefits to the survivors of two men who suffered permanent and total disabilities while working for that shipyard. The maritime nexus is obvious. St. Louis Shipbuilding, supra, 583 F.2d at 878; Nacirema Operating Co., supra, 577 F.2d at 854; Norfolk Lines, supra, 539 F.2d at 380. See, generally, Crowell v. Benson, 1932, 285 U.S. 22, 52 S.Ct. 285, 76 L.Ed. 598. 33 We therefore need not consider Respondents' argument that amended § 909 is also supported by the Commerce Clause. Cf. O'Leary v. Puget Sound Bridge & Dry Dock Co., 9 Cir., 1965, 349 F.2d 571, 575. 34 The orders of the Benefits Review Board are affirmed.