Court Opinion

ID: 9422428
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:02:35.655326+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:36.629097
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stewart,
whom Mr. Justice Harlan joins,
dissenting.
In the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, 33 U. S. C. §§ 901-950, Congress carefully provided for the recovery of benefits only “if recovery for the disability or death through workmen’s compensation proceedings may not validly be provided by State law.” 33 U. S. C. § 903 (a). Now, thirty-five years later, the Court concludes that Congress did not really mean what it said. I cannot join in this exercise in judicial legerdemain. I think the statute still means what it says, and what it has always been thought to mean — namely, that there can be no recovery under the Act in cases where the State may constitutionally confer a workmen’s compensation remedy. While the result reached today may be a desirable one, it is simply not what the law provides.
I seriously doubt whether statutory language as clear as that in 33 U. S. C. § 903 (a) could ever be ignored in the name of effectuating the supposed “Congressional desire.” Be that as it may, this particular statutory lan*133guage does in fact reflect the purpose of Congress, which was only to provide compensation for those whom this Court’s decisions had barred from the benefits of state workmen’s compensation laws. And at the time of the passage of this federal law the Court had squarely held, as Congress well knew, that state workmen’s compensation remedies were constitutionally available to workers who, as in the present cases, were engaged in new ship construction on navigable waters.
The Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act was the culmination of a series of events beginning with this Court’s decision in Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, 244 U. S. 205, which held that the New York Workmen’s Compensation Act could not constitutionally be applied to a stevedore unloading a vessel on navigable waters, because to do so would impair the uniformity of the general maritime law. Within five months after the Jensen decision Congress passed legislation which attempted to give injured maritime employees “the rights and remedies under the workmen’s compensation law of any State.” 40 Stat. 395. This legislation was declared unconstitutional as an invalid attempt to delegate federal power to the States. Knickerbocker Ice Co. v. Stewart, 253 U. S. 149. A second statute, 42 Stat. 634, similar in approach to the first, was declared invalid in Washington v. Dawson & Co., 264 U. S. 219.
Meanwhile, the Court was backing away somewhat from Jensen by recognizing that where the general employment and particular activities connected with an injury or death were local in character, though maritime in nature, state law could provide redress without disturbing the uniformity of the general maritime law. The maritime but local doctrine, first applied in connection with a state wrongful death statute, Western Fuel Co. v. Garcia, 257 U. S. 233, provided the basis for holding that a state compensation act could be applied to a worker *134engaged in the construction of a new vessel which, while uncompleted, was afloat on navigable waters. Grant Smith-Porter Ship Co. v. Rohde, 257 U. S. 469.1
Against this background Congress made its third and ultimately successful attempt to provide compensation for maritime employees deprived by the Jensen rule of state compensation remedies. Seizing upon a suggestion made by the Court in Washington v. Dawson & Co., supra, Congress turned its attention in the direction of a uniform federal compensation act. The Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act was the result. In the previous two attempts to circumvent Jensen Congress had indicated its belief that the compensation remedy could best be supplied by the States. It is obvious that in the-new Act Congress did not depart from this basic approach, either by making federal law applicable where state law could apply, or by giving the injured employee a choice of remedies. Congress had simply been informed by decisions of this Court that a compensation remedy could be provided for certain maritime injuries only through a uniform federal law, and the federal legislation was enacted only to fill the gap created by those decisions.
The legislative materials connected with the Act fully support this conclusion. It was repeatedly emphasized that the purpose of the Act was to provide a compensation remedy for those who could not obtain such relief under state law. “If longshoremen could avail themselves of the benefits of State compensation laws, there would be no occasion for this legislation; but, unfortu*135nately, they are excluded from these laws by reason of the character of their employment; and they are not only excluded but the Supreme Court has more than once held that Federal legislation can not, constitutionally, be enacted that will apply State laws to this occupation.” S. Rep. No. 973, 69th Cong., 1st Sess., at 16. “The committee . . . recommends that this humanitarian legislation be speedily enacted into law so that this class of workers, practically the only class without the benefit of workmen’s compensation, may be afforded this protection . . . .” H. R. Rep. No. 1190,69th Cong., 1st Sess., at 3. The chairman of the subcommittee conducting hearings on the bill categorically stated that “we are proceeding on the theory that these people can not be compensated under the New York compensation law or any other compensation law.” Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee on S. 3170, 69th Cong., 1st Sess., at 84. Similar statements were made by those who spoke during the committee hearings on the proposed legislation.2 Several witnesses pointed out that the statute applied to but two categories of workers, longshoremen and those involved in ship repair,3 the classes of employees denied relief under state compensation acts by the Jensen case and the decisions which followed it.4
*136The meaning of 33 U. S. C. § 903 (a) can hardly be deemed a question of first impression. In the thirty-five years since its enactment this provision has been before the Court many times. The Court has consistently said that the Act does not apply to injuries on navigable waters where a State can constitutionally provide a compensation remedy. All the commentators have agreed.5 And the administrators of the Act have so held, specifically with respect to new ship construction.6
In order to avoid the harsh results which the uncertainties of this statutory provision could sometimes produce, .the Court in Davis v. Department of Labor, 317 U. S. 249, developed the theory of the twilight zone. There we reversed a decision of the Washington Supreme Court which had held that a State could not constitutionally make a compensation award to the widow of a workman drowned in a navigable river while dismantling a drawbridge. Relying on the language of § 903 (a) the Court pointed out that “Congress made clear its purpose to permit state compensation protection whenever possible ... .” Id., at 252-253. The Court went on to note that harbor workers and longshoremen were clearly protected by the Federal Act but that “employees such as decedent *137here, occupy that shadowy area within which, at some undefined and undefinable point, state laws can validly provide compensation.” It was noted that both the Federal Act and the state compensation statute “show clearly that neither was intended to encroach on the field occupied by the other.” Id., at 255. Since this “jurisdictional dilemma” made it difficult for an injured worker to determine on which side of the line his particular case fell, the result in some cases had been that he obtained no compensation at all. In this “twilight zone” where the facts of a given case might place an injured worker on either side of the line, the Court held that it would give great weight to the administrative findings in cases brought under the Federal Act, and to the presumption of constitutionality in cases arising under state statutes. Because of this presumption of constitutionality the claimant in Davis was allowed her state remedy.7
Whatever else may be said of the Davis decision, it thus clearly rested on a construction of the statute precisely opposite to that adopted by the Court today. Indeed, if today’s decision is correct, then there was no reason for the “twilight zone” doctrine worked out with such travail in Davis. For the Court now holds that the problem which led to the Davis decision never really existed. Yet as recently as 1959 the Court began a per curiam opinion with this topic sentence: “By its terms, the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act does not apply 'if recovery for the disability or death through workmen’s compensation proceedings may . . . validly be provided by State law.’ ” Hahn v. Ross Island *138Sand & Gravel Co., 358 U. S. 272. Today the Court simply removes these “terms” from the Act.8
In my view the decision of the Court of Appeals in these cases was correct. For almost forty years it has been unequivocally recognized that for those employed on new ship construction recovery for disability or death through workmen’s compensation may validly be provided by state law. Grant Smith-Porter Ship Co. v. Rohde, supra. In one of the cases before us the claimant has actually been paid benefits under the Louisiana Compensation Act. In the other a claim under the Texas Act is pending and would clearly be allowed. See Travelers Ins. Co. v. Gonzalez, 351 S. W. 2d 374. These cases, therefore, were not by any stretch of the imagination within the twilight zone. The Federal Act is thus by its terms inapplicable.
I would affirm.

 During this same period the Court consistently held that the principles of Jensen prohibited the application of state compensation laws to workers engaged in the repair of existing vessels. Robins Dry Dock & Repair Co. v. Dahl, 266 U. S. 449; Gonsalves v. Morse Dry Dock & Repair Co., 266 U. S. 171; Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. v. Kierejewski, 261 U. S. 479.

 Hearings before the House Judiciary Committee on H. R. 9498, 69th Cong., 1st Sess., at 39, 118; Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee on S. 3170, 69th Cong., 1st Sess., at 22, 25-27, 31, 38, 85.

 Hearings before the House Judiciary Committee on S. 3170, 69th Cong., 1st Sess., at 141; Hearings before the House Judiciary Committee on H. R. 9498, 69th Cong., 1st Sess., at 44, 119; Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee on S. 3170, 69th Cong., 1st Sess., at 80.

 The Court places heavy reliance on the deletion of the so-called “local concern” language from the original bill, pointing out that this language had been objected to as vague and uncertain. But it is apparent that the objections went to the possibility that the language *136“except employment of local concern and of no direct relation to navigation and commerce” might not accurately define the line beyond which state law could be applied — a difficulty which was easily removed by making the statute inapplicable where a remedy could “validly be provided by State law.”

 See Gilmore and Black, Admiralty, 346; Robinson, Admiralty, 110; Rodes, Workmen’s Compensation for Maritime Employees: Obscurity in the Twilight Zone, 68 Harv. L. Rev. 637, 638-639; Morrison, Workmen’s Compensation and the Maritime Law, 38 Yale L. J. 472, 500; Comment, 67 Yale L. J. 1205, 1210-1211.

 See Opinion No. 7, September 2,1927, of the Employees’ Compensation Commission, discussed in n. 15 of the Court’s opinion, ante, p. 127. This ruling was followed until 1959, a span of thirty-two years.

 To achieve the result reached in Davis after today’s decision would require the Court to ignore still another provision of the Federal Act — § 905 — which makes federal compensation the exclusive remedy when the Federal Act is clearly applicable.

 The Court’s opinion places heavy reliance on Parker v. Motor Boat Sales, 314 U. S. 244. I cannot understand why. For in Parker the Court recognized that the proviso in § 903 (a) was “a subtraction from the scope of the Act.” Id., at 249. The Court today holds to the contrary. Moreover, any possible doubt as to the basis of the Parker decision was resolved in Davis, where the Court explained Parker in terms of the twilight-zone rule. 317 U. S., at 257.