Court Opinion

ID: 9483877
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:33:51.29996+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:53.128314
License: Public Domain

BAILEY BROWN, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Because I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that Stowers was not engaged in “maritime employment” for purposes of the LHWCA, I respectfully dissent.
In essence, the majority opinion reaches the conclusion that Stowers’ claim must be under the FELA and not under the LHWCA because, following the Fourth Circuit’s holding in Conti v. Norfolk & Western Ry., 566 F.2d 890 (4th Cir.1977), Stow-ers’ work was not “traditionally maritime” and instead was “unloading of a coal train, not loading a vessel.” Op. at 296. The majority opinion correctly recognizes that the more recent opinion of the District of Columbia Circuit in Harmon v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R., 741 F.2d 1398 (D.C.Cir.1984), squarely supports the decision of the district court in the instant case and expressly disagrees with the holding of the Fourth Circuit in Conti.
It is undisputed that the Harbor Yard’s role was to receive cars loaded with coal from the mines (in an area of the Harbor Yard called the “Bridge Yard”) brought in by railroad over-the-road crews. The loaded cars were then moved by a Harbor Yard locomotive operated by a yard engineer such as Stowers, and were spotted by the engineer in a dumper located on the coal dock bordering the Ashtabula River. These loaded cars were then lifted and *298dumped by the dock crew and the coal was moved into the ship by a conveyor belt. After the cars were emptied and placed back on the track, the yard engineer would then move them to another part of the Harbor Yard (the “back track”) where the damaged cars were “bad ordered” and the non-damaged cars were made into a train which over-the-road crews would take away.1 Stowers was injured when his engine derailed while moving empty coal cars from the dock area to the “back track” in Harbor Yard where damaged cars were to be “bad ordered” and the remainder placed to be picked up by an over-the-road crew.
I believe that Stowers’ injury is covered by the LHWCA because his work was “essential to the loading or unloading process ...,” Chesapeake & Ohio R.R. v. Schwalb, 493 U.S. 40, 47, 110 S.Ct. 381, 385, 107 L.Ed.2d 278 (1989), and the injury occurred on a maritime situs. Certainly Stowers would have been covered by the LHWCA if he had been injured while spotting a full coal car in the dumper or while removing an empty car from the dumper because he would then have been a part of the loading crew. If Stowers was covered when actually participating in the loading process, he would also be covered while moving empty cars in Harbor Yard away from the loading process because a primary purpose of the 1972 amendments was to do away with the phenomenon of employees who, in performing their duties, moved in and out of coverage under the LHWCA. P.C. Pfeiffer Company v. Ford, 444 U.S. 69, 75-76, 100 S.Ct. 328, 333, 62 L.Ed.2d 225 (1979).
Accordingly, it is clear that Stowers was a “maritime employee” within the meaning of the LHWCA. This is all the more certain when one recognizes, as does the majority opinion, citing Schwalb, 493 U.S. at 46, 110 S.Ct. at 385, that the legislative history of the 1972 amendments shows that Congress intended the LHWCA to be liberally construed in favor of coverage.
While the majority opinion does not deal with Stowers’ contention that his injury does not satisfy the “situs” requirement of the LHWCA because he was injured on the “back track” in Harbor Yard, it is clear that this part of Harbor Yard was part of the situs since the act defines situs to include a “marine railway.” 33 U.S.C. § 902(4) (1988). Certainly, Harbor Yard, adjoining and serving only those docks on Ashtabula River, is a “marine railway.”
While the majority opinion states that it is consistent with the opinion of this court in Warren Bros. v. Nelson, 635 F.2d 552 (6th Cir.1980), I disagree. Indeed, Warren Bros, actually supports my position. In Warren Bros., the employee, a truck driver, was injured while moving gravel, which had been unloaded from barges into a hopper on a floating platform, to a nearby plant. The gravel had been unloaded from the barge and had then been picked up by the truck driver after which he suffered his injury. This court held that the truck driver was covered by the LHWCA.
I understand the majority opinion to agree that if Stowers were a “maritime employee,” Conrail would be his “maritime employer.” Since, in my opinion, he was a “maritime employee,” Conrail was a “maritime employer.”
I would therefore affirm the decision of the district court which held that Stowers’ exclusive remedy is under the LHWCA.

. It appears that the Harbor Yard also serviced a dock on the river where ore was unloaded into empty cars which were moved by yard engineers from the dock into the Harbor Yard where they were picked up by over-the-road crews.