Opinion ID: 525601
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Situs Requirement of the LHWCA.

Text: This is provided by 33 U.S.C. Sec. 903(a): 33 (a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, compensation shall be payable under this chapter in respect of disability or death of an employee, but only if the disability or death results from an injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States (including any adjoining pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal, building way, marine railway, or other adjoining area customarily used by an employer in loading, unloading, repairing, dismantling, or building a vessel). 34 Id. (emphasis added). 35 Whether the situs requirement is met in this case is contested by the parties, partly on the basis of our panel's holding in Mills v. Director, Office of Worker's Compensation Programs, 846 F.2d 1013 (5th Cir.1988), that a land based welder could recover under the LHWCA for injuries that occurred to him while working on shore fabricating a platform destined for the outer continental shelf. Id. at 1014. 2 The instant case does not arise under OCSLA, and despite some factual similarities between Mills and the instant case, 43 U.S.C. Sec. 1331(1) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act does not control disposition of the situs requirement. 36 Applying Caputo's situs requirement in the instant case, the ALJ found that the employer's yard adjoined the navigable waters of the United States and the situs requirement was satisfied. The appellant's argument that land-based workers should not be covered by the LHWCA is overbroad, and conflicts with the statutory language of Sec. 903(a). Since the respondent was engaged in maritime activities in an area adjoining the water, the Board's result must be affirmed. 37