Opinion ID: 468570
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Navigable Waters of the United States.

Text: 15 We begin with the language of the Act itself. [C]ompensation shall be payable ... if the disability or death results from an injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States (including any adjoining pier ... or other adjoining area customarily used by an employer in loading, unloading, repairing, dismantling, or building a vessel). 33 U.S.C. Sec. 903(a). The Act does not define the phrase navigable waters of the United States, but the phrase has been often construed in admiralty cases. See, e.g., The Plymouth, 70 U.S. (3 Wall.) 20, 33, 18 L.Ed. 125 (1865) (referring to the high seas, or other navigable waters within admiralty cognizance); The Eagle, 75 U.S. (8 Wall.) 15, 20-21, 19 L.Ed. 365 (1868) (public navigable waters include lakes, and waters connecting them, ... the high seas, bays, and rivers navigable from the sea); The Daniel Ball, 77 U.S. (10 Wall.) 557, 563 (1871) 19 L.Ed. 999 (waters constitute navigable waters of the United States within the meaning of acts of Congress ... when they form in their ordinary condition by themselves, or by uniting with other waters, a continued highway over which commerce is or may be carried on with other States or foreign countries); The Montello, 78 U.S. (11 Wall.) 411, 415, 20 L.Ed. 191 (1871) (water can only be deemed a navigable water of the United States when it forms ... a highway over which commerce is or may be carried on with other States or foreign countries); Ex parte Easton, 95 U.S. (5 Otto) 68, 72, 24 L.Ed. 373 (1877) (Public navigable waters ... of course include the high seas); Atlantic Transport Co. v. Imbrovek, 234 U.S. 52, 59, 34 S.Ct. 733, 58 L.Ed.1208 (1914) (referring to the high seas or other navigable waters). 6 16 The high seas, as the term is currently understood, do begin at a line three miles offshore, but it has never been understood that the navigable waters of the United States end there. The high seas simply encompass all parts of the sea that are not included in the territorial sea or in the internal waters of a State. 1 Benedict on Admiralty Sec. 141, at 9-2 (7th ed.). Benedict goes on to explain that [m]uch of the maritime legislation enacted since 1910 [including the LHWCA] applies to all the navigable waters of the United States without distinction--to the high seas, the coastal waters and sounds and bays, the Great Lakes, the inland rivers and lakes. Id. at 9-46 & n. 8. 17 Language in the LHWCA lends further support to the conclusion that the Act's use of the term navigable waters includes the high seas. For example, although the Coverage section of the Act does not use the phrase high seas, the Administrative section does, referring to compensation districts which will include the high seas. See Cove Tankers Corp. v. United Ship Repair, Inc., 528 F.Supp. 101, 107-09 (S.D.N.Y.1981) (Cove Tankers I ), aff'd, 683 F.2d 38 (2d Cir.1982). In addition, the original Application provision of the Act provided that [t]his act shall apply to any employment performed on a place within the admiralty jurisdiction of the United States, except employment of a local concern and of no direct relation to navigation and commerce: but shall not apply to employment as master or crew of a vessel. S. 3170, 69th Cong., quoted in 1A Benedict on Admiralty Sec. 7, at 1-11 (7th ed.). The admiralty jurisdiction of the United States clearly includes the high seas. The original provision was deemed too confusing, however, so it was rewritten to provide that compensation would be payable but only if the disability or death results from an injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States (including any dry dock) and if recovery for the disability or death through workmen's compensation proceedings may not validly be provided by State law. Section 903 of the 1927 Act, quoted in id. at 1-11. 18 Finally, the Definitions section of the Act defines United States as the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia, including the territorial waters thereof. 33 U.S.C. Sec. 902(9) (emphasis added). If navigable waters were to exclude the high seas and encompass only territorial waters, then the phrase navigable waters of the United States in Sec. 903 would be unnecessary and redundant since the term United States includes, by definition, the nation's territorial waters. The fact that the Act specifies navigable waters in the section pertaining to coverage (Sec. 903) while using territorial waters to define the United States (Sec. 902(9)) suggests a distinction between the two. The language of the Act itself, therefore, supports the conclusion that the LHWCA does not cease to operate at the three-mile line. 19