Opinion ID: 1338683
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Comparison of state and federal interests

Text: Assuming for the moment that the proper point of comparison is that followed by the majority, and the state act is compared to general maritime law, I still conclude that the Virginia Act precludes Mizenko's negligence action against Electric Motor. The two-pronged elements of federal interest the majority cites which are to be weighed against state interests here are characterized as the substantive admiralty right to sue Electric Motor for negligence in this instance, and the need to insure that maritime workers may be uniformly allowed to bring a suit like this in all state courts. Accepting, although not agreeing with this definition of the federal interest, I turn to the state interests as I see them and as analyzed by the majority. The majority's conclusion regarding the relative federal and state interests is reached primarily by distinguishing the cases previously decided by this Court, McBride, and Ford, discussed above, and three federal cases: P.J. Carlin Constr. Co. v. Heaney, 299 U.S. 41, 57 S.Ct. 75, 81 L.Ed. 27 (1936), Grant Smith-Porter Ship Co. v. Rohde, 257 U.S. 469, 42 S.Ct. 157, 66 L.Ed. 321 (1922), and Brockington v. Certified Electric, Inc., 903 F.2d 1523 (11th Cir. 1990), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 676, 112 L.Ed.2d 668 (1991). In Rohde, the Court held that general admiralty jurisdiction extended to a work-related injury but that the state law could be applied even though it precluded the right to recover damages in an admiralty court which otherwise would exist. Rohde, 257 U.S. at 478, 42 S.Ct. at 159. The majority cites two elements as significant factors of state concern in Rohde, but not present in the instant case, which precludes the Rohde result here. First, the nature of the activity giving rise to the injury, construction work on an uncompleted vessel, did not have a direct relation to navigation and commerce; and second, under the employment contract, the injured worker had agreed to be bound by the terms of the Oregon statute. Rohde was a carpenter and was enclosing tanks in the substantially completed vessel located in navigable waters. To say that Rohde's general employment and his precise activity when injured were not directly related to navigation or commerce, as the Supreme Court did, is saying no more than that a carpenter enclosing tanks on a ship is not doing something directly related to navigation or commerce. Nevertheless, the Court held that the circumstances of this employment were sufficient to invoke admiralty jurisdiction as the Court held. Applying this prong to the instant case, Mizenko's work, repairing pipes on a ship, like building covers for ships' tanks, is in itself not directly related to navigation or commerce, but the activity has been consistently held to constitute maritime employment and invoke admiralty jurisdiction. See Ford, 221 Va. at 561-62, 272 S.E.2d at 190. The second prong, acceptance of the Oregon workers' compensation statute, was not embodied in a written contract, but arose by virtue of payments made to the Industrial Accident Fund. This contract, non-maritime in nature, was found by the Supreme Court to define the rights between the parties without contemplation of the general system of maritime law. In this regard, the application of the Virginia law is similar. Mizenko presumptively accepted the statute's provisions when he undertook employment with Abacus. Va. Code § 65.2-300. For purposes of the state's interest, the employment contracts of Mizenko and Rohde were virtually identical. The fact is that Virginia, like Oregon, has an interest in regulating the rights and interests surrounding employment and the application of those local law[s] cannot materially affect any rules of the sea whose uniformity is essential. Rohde, 257 U.S. at 477, 42 S.Ct. at 158. In my opinion, the state interests identified in Rohde are no different than Virginia's interests in this case, and the enforcement of those interests, as in Rohde, is sufficient to override the stated federal interests. Similarly, in two other cases in which the state law rather than general maritime law was applied, the majority finds a significant state interest which it says distinguishes those cases from the instant case and forecloses the result of those cases in the instant case. In Brockington, a land-based electrician was injured as a result of a boating collision while being transported by boat to his job site. Brockington brought a negligence action against his employer invoking the admiralty jurisdiction of the federal courts under general maritime law. [8] The employer moved for summary judgment, arguing that the claim was barred by the provisions of the Georgia Workers' Compensation Act. Recognizing that under certain circumstances state law may appropriately be applied by federal courts sitting in admiralty, the Eleventh Circuit then evaluated the propriety of applying the Georgia law in these circumstances. Using the accepted analysis of balancing the relevant state and federal interests, the Eleventh Circuit found the interest in applying general maritime law to the present [negligence] action is not substantial. Brockington, 903 F.2d at 1532. The Eleventh Circuit reached that conclusion after surveying instances where admiralty law overrode state law such as: (1) when state law precluded a wrongful death action which was specifically permitted under general maritime and admiralty law; and (2) where recovery was based not on negligence, but on a claim of unseaworthiness, a peculiar right recognized by admiralty. When state law supplements or modifies maritime law in a manner not hostile to or inconsistent with federal maritime law or legislation, however, maritime law is not required to displace state law. Citing instances where federal courts have allowed application of state workers' compensation law, the Eleventh Circuit concluded that: It can hardly be argued that uniformity considerations would be implicated where there appears to be no uniform rule and, in admiralty cases where a rule of admiralty did not require uniformity, state laws have been accepted as the rules of decision. Id. Turning to the state interest involved, the Eleventh Circuit found that Georgia's interest in applying state law is relatively high. The factors cited by the court in Brockington were in the main the same factors existing in the instant case. The majority in this case, however, dismisses the Eleventh Circuit's analysis regarding the state interest, stating that Brockington involved a significant state interest not present in the case before us ... the work involved totally land-based construction. Mizenko v. Electric Motor and Contracting Co., 244 Va. 152, 163, 419 S.E.2d 637, 644 (1992). The land-based nature of the work was not even considered by the Eleventh Circuit as a factor in determining that the action was peculiarly local. Brockington, 903 F.2d at 1532. Furthermore, to discount this case on the basis of the land-based nature of the work ignores the fact that the electrician's activity had to have a substantial nexus with traditional maritime activity to qualify him for maintaining a federal maritime action under admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. Id. at 1529. I agree with the Eleventh Circuit holding in Brockington and I find no overriding federal maritime interest which would be served by denying application of state law on the facts of this case. Finally, the majority also distinguished P.J. Carlin, because it involved a land-based worker who was injured while on a ferry transporting him to his work site. Like the court in Brockington, however, the Supreme Court, in allowing the application of state law, did not base its decision in any way on the land-based nature of the employee's work. Consequently, this factor is not a persuasive or legitimate factor to support a different result in this case. Based on my analysis of the cases set forth by the majority in comparing the federal and state interests, I conclude that Virginia's interest in enforcement of workers' compensation law here is as substantial as the states' interests in Rohde, Brockington, and P.J. Carlin. Consistent with the courts deciding those cases, I find that application of state law to preclude this suit to recover damages for injuries already compensated under workers' compensation does not materially prejudice the characteristic features of general maritime law and, further, does not significantly undermine uniformity of federal maritime law. V. The majority's persistent adherence to its view of this claima maritime tort under general maritime law invested with substantive rights unaffected by federal and state work-related injury lawunderlies the dichotomy between my position and that of the majority. This difference is more than an intellectual disagreement. For example, if a longshoreman should seek damages for a work-related injury based on a claim of negligence against his employer and labels his cause of action a maritime tort, not a claim for workers' compensation, I cannot conceive that a court would not apply the provisions of the LHWCA, regardless of the label assigned to the claim, and dismiss the action. Nevertheless, when the majority opinion is applied to this hypothetical situation, neither the LHWCA nor the VWCA may be considered or applied, and the suit must be allowed to proceed in the interests of uniformity under the general maritime law and the preservation of a federal maritime right to bring an action for negligence. I dissent.