Weber v. Henderson
Weber v. Henderson
Opinion of the Court
The proceeding before this court is predicated upon judicial review of administrative action taken by respondent as Deputy Commissioner of the Seventh Compensation District, United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Employees Compensation, dismissing libellant’s compensation claim for herself and in behalf of her minor child, arising from the death of her husband, a longshoreman. The scope of this review is controlled by Section 21 of the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act
Magnus T. Weber, claimant’s husband, died on August 23, 1950, allegedly from
The text of 33 U.S.C.A. § 933(f) is shown in the note.
A casual reading of 33 U.S.C.A. § 933 (f) would indicate the correctness of the Deputy Commissioner’s interpretation. On closer analysis, however, doubts emerge.
But respondents say that when 33 U.S.C.A. § 933(f) says “institutes proceedings within the period prescribed in section 913,” it refers to third party proceedings, that the reference to Section 913 is merely for the purpose of providing a time limitation on the filing of the third party action, that it has no reference whatever to the substance of Section 913 which concerns, of course, not third party actions, but claims for compensation under the Act.
It is true that the subsection may be so read and that this interpretation is, to some extent, fortified by the use of the words “institute proceedings” in 33 U.S.C.A. § 933(d) to mean a third party action. But where the statute refers to “institute proceedings” in 33 U.S.C.A. § 933(d), it follows that language with “for the recovery of such damages”, obviously from a third party action, whereas in 33 U.S.C.A. § 933(f), the “institutes proceedings” is followed by “within the period prescribed in section 913”, which, of course, has to do with filing a claim for compensation under the Act. Moreover, the prosecution of claims for compensation before the Deputy Commissioner is referred to as “proceedings” at least six times in the Act.
To read 33 U.S.C.A. § 933(f) as respondents would have it read would eliminate from that subsection the time requirement for filing a claim for deficien
It must be owned that this court’s interpretation of 33 U.S.C.A. § 933(f) is not free from doubt. But the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has already held that this same subsection of the Act is ambiguous in another particular and that that ambiguity had to be resolved in favor of the claimant, in keeping with the remedial and beneficent purposes of the Act.
Compensation order vacated and set aside.
. 33 U.S.C.A. 901 et seq.
. Moore Dry Dock Co. v. Pillsbury, 9 Cir., 169 F.2d 988; Bethlehem Steel Co. v. Parker, 4 Cir., 163 F.2d 334; Maryland Casualty Co. v. Cardillo, 71 App.D.C. 160, 107 F.2d 959; Metropolitan Casualty Insurance Co. v. Hoage, 67 App.D.C. 54, 89 F.2d 798; Wilson & Co. v. Locke, 2 Cir., 50 F.2d 81; Northwestern Stevedoring Co. v. Marshall, 9 Cir., 41 F.2d 28; Grain Handling Co. v. McManigal, D.C., 23 F.Supp. 748; Liberty Stevedoring Co. v. Cardillo, D.C., 18 F.Supp. 729; Southern Shipping Co. v. Lawson, D.C., 5 F.Supp. 321; Burmester v. De Lucia, 263 N.Y. 315, 189 N.E. 231; State Treasurer v. West Side Trucking Co., 198 App.Div. 432, 191 N.Y.S. 346, affirmed 233 N.Y. 202, 135 N.E. 244.
. 33 U.S.C.A. § 933(f) reads:
“If the person'entitled to compensation or the representative elects to recover damages against such third person and notifies the Secretary of his election and institutes proceedings within the period prescribed in section 913 of this chapter, the employer shall be required to pay as compensation under this chapter a sum equal to the excess of the amount which the Secretary determines is payable on account of such injury or death over the amount recovered against such third person.”
. 33 U.S.C.A. § 933(d) reads:
“Such employer on account of such assignment may either institute proceedings for the recovery of such damages or may compromise with such third person either without or after instituting such proceeding.”
. There is no helpful legislative history of 33 U.S.C.A. § 933(f).
. Section 13(a), 33 U.S.C.A. § 913(a), reads:
“The right to compensation for disability under this chapter shall be barred unless a claim therefor is filed within one year after the injury, and the right to compensation for death shall be barred unless a claim therefor is filed within one year after the death, except that if payment of compensation has been made without an award on account of such injury or death a claim may be filed within one year after the date of the last payment. Such claim shall be filed with the deputy commissioner in the compensation district in which such injury or such death occurred.”
. See 33 U.S.C.A. §§ 919(h), 923(b), 924, 925, 927 (a, b).
. Section 26, 33 U.S.C.A. § 926, reads:
“If the court having jurisdiction of proceedings in respect of any claim or compensation order determines that the proceedings in respect of such claim or order have been instituted or continued without reasonable ground, the costs of such proceedings shall be assessed against the party who has so instituted or continued such proceedings.”
See also 33 U.S.C.A. § 925.
. 33 U.S.C.A. § 913(d) reads:
“Where recovery is denied to any person, in a suit brought at law or in admiralty to recover damages in respect of injury or death, on the ground that such person was an employee and that the defendant was an employer within the meaning of this chapter and that such employer had secured compensation to such employee under this chapter the limitation of time prescribed in subdivision (a) shall begin to run only from the date of termination of such suit.”
. In Voris v. Gulf-Tide Stevedores, 5 Cir., 211 F.2d 549, 551, the court said:
“The court below held that it was the total or gross and not the net amount of the recovery against a third party, the excess of which the employer was required to pay under 33 U.S.C.A. § 933(f), which provides, in part, for the payment of ‘a sum equal to the excess of the amount which the Secretary determines is payable on account of such injury or death over the amount recovered against such third person.’ The facts being undisputed, the question presented below and here is one of interpretation of an ambiguous statute, which should be liberally construed in favor of longshoremen and harbor workers.”
. In Markham v. Cabell, 326 U.S. 404, at page 409, 66 S.Ct. 193, at page 195, 90 L.Ed. 165, the court wrote:
“The policy as well as the letter of the law is a guide to decision. Resort to the policy of a law may be had to ameliorate its seeming harshness or to qualify its apparent absolutes as Holy Trinity Church v. United States, 143 U.S. 457, 12 S.Ct. 511, 36 L.Ed. 226, illustrates. The process of interpretation also misses its high function if a strict reading of a law results in the emasculation or deletion of a provision which a less literal reading would preserve.”
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Mrs. Thelma WEBER, Libellant v. Joseph H. HENDERSON, Deputy Commissioner
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published