Opinion ID: 768782
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Waiver under federal law

Text: 24 None of the authorities cited by the Reyes court or by the Supreme Court in Gizoni defined a formal award. Nor does this term appear anywhere in the New York Workers' Compensation Law. However, the statute provides other guidance. Under the statute, with limited exceptions not applicable here, 3 only the Board is authorized to make compensation awards: 25 The board shall have full power and authority to determine all questions in relation to the payment of claims . . . and upon application of either party, shall order a hearing, and within thirty days after a claim for compensation is submitted . . . , or such hearing closed, shall make or deny an award, determining such claim for compensation, and file the same in the office of the chair. 26 N.Y. Work. Comp. Law 20(1). Section 142, entitled General powers and duties of the workmen's compensation board, provides that the Board is empowered, among other things, to hear and determine all claims for compensation or benefits and to modify or rescind awards. See id. 142(1). The statute also uses the term award interchangeably with the term decision. See id. 23 (An award or decision of the board shall be final and conclusive upon all questions within its jurisdiction . . . .). An award by the Board is contrasted with situations where the employer or insurer pays compensation to the claimant directly, without waiting for an award by the board, because no controversy exists between them. Id. 25(1); see also 9 Arthur Larson and Lex K. Larson, Workers' Compensation Law 90.51(a)-(c) (1999) (noting that compensation may be given without the employee ever having filed a claim, upon the filing of a claim but without a Board award, or pursuant to an award); Grant Gilmore and Charles L. Black, Jr., Law of Admiralty 435 (2d ed. 1975) (same). 27 We therefore believe that a formal award is a written decision issued by the Board and filed with the office of the Chair of the Board. A decision or award is issued by the Board when it is made by a member or panel of the board or by a Workers' Compensation Law Judge. N.Y. Work. Comp. Law App. 300.1(a)(1). Moreover, an award may be formal even if it was made without the benefit of an evidentiary hearing because the Workers' Compensation Law does not mandate a hearing before the Board issues an award. In addition, the award must become final and conclusive, and not be subject to further modification, either because the time for administrative and judicial appeals has expired, or because the award has been affirmed on appeal. See id. 23. A commonsense application of this definition is that a formal award may provide for a lump sum payment or a series of payments. We reject Mooney's argument, based on his misplaced reliance on a footnote in Reyes, that only a lump sum payment exceeding his workers' compensation entitlement may be deemed a formal award precluding the Jones Act suit. See Reyes, 199 F.3d at 629 n.1. That decision merely explained that a petition to the Board for a lump sum payment was insufficient to trigger a waiver because, under Gizoni, only the receipt of payments constitutes a waiver. See id. Reyes did not suggest, much less hold, that only a lump sum payment could be deemed a waiver. 28 We emphasize that a complainant's receipt of a formal award constitutes a waiver of his or her federal maritime claims only if the formal award settl[ed the complainant's] claims in their entirety. Id. at 628. This requirement is simply an application of the well-established principles of waiver, which we do not interpret Reyes to have altered. We have held, in other situations, that a waiver need not be express, but may be inferred from the conduct of the parties. See Tray-Wrap, Inc. v. Six L's Packing Co., 984 F.2d 65, 68 (2d Cir. 1993); NLRB v. New York Tel. Co., 930 F.2d 1009, 1011 (2d Cir. 1991). [T]he conduct said to constitute a waiver must be clear and unequivocal, as waivers are never to be lightly inferred. Tray-Wrap, 984 F.2d at 68; see Banff, Ltd. v. Colberts, Inc., 996 F.2d 33, 36 (2d Cir. 1993). We will infer a waiver only where the parties were aware of their rights and made the conscious choice, for whatever reason, to waive them. New York Tel., 930 F.2d at 1011. Moreover, the party asserting an implied waiver as a matter of law carries the burden of proving that these requirements have been met. See id. (Party asserting waiver bears the weighty burden of establishing that a 'clear and unmistakable' waiver has occurred. (quoting Metropolitan Edison Co. v. NLRB, 460 U.S. 693, 708 (1983))); cf. United States v. Omdahl, 104 F.3d 1143, 1146 (9th Cir. 1997) (party asserting the affirmative defense of estoppel has burden of proof). 29 These fundamental principles are equally applicable to the workers' compensation context. Thus, where the employer (or insurer) establishes that the complainant has made a claim to the Board for maritime damages, the Board has issued a formal award purporting to settle all of the complainant's claims, and the complainant has failed to appeal, the dual requirements of knowledge and subjective intent are satisfied. In these circumstances, the claimant's receipt of a formal award amounts to a waiver of his or her maritime remedies as a matter of federal law. 30 On the other hand, a formal award, even though final, would not bar a federal maritime action if it does not resolve all of the claims that the injured party presented to the Board, since such an award would not settle the injured party's claims in their entirety. Acceptance of a formal award also would not waive a federal maritime action commenced before the award became final, since in that case the complainant has indicated an intent to seek redress in a different forum before the award became final. Furthermore, a formal award cannot be said to extinguish a claim that was never presented to the Board and for which the statute of limitations has not yet expired. 31 To summarize, a formal award is a written decision issued with or without an evidentiary hearing, by a member or panel of the Board or by a workers' compensation law judge, and filed with the office of the Chair of the Board. Acceptance of a formal award constitutes an implied waiver of a complainant's maritime claims as a matter of federal law where those claims were presented to and resolved by the Board, and the Board's award became final and conclusive pursuant to 23 of the New York Workers' Compensation Law before a maritime action is filed. On remand, therefore, the district court should consider: (1) whether Mooney had filed a claim with the Board for maritime damages in addition to worker's compensation; (2) whether the Board had issued a formal award settling all of Mooney's claims that were pending prior to the commencement of this case; 4 and (3) whether the formal award, if issued, became final and conclusive on the parties before Mooney commenced the present action. The district court is free, of course, to develop additional facts.