Noah v. Liberty Mutual Insurance
Noah v. Liberty Mutual Insurance
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff’s son, a longshoreman employed by United Stevedoring Company, met his death by drowning when he fell from a barge in the Mississippi River while engaged in loading pig iron from the barge onto the SS Longview Victory. Plaintiff filed claim under Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Act
Plaintiff, relying on the twilight zone doctrine as announced in Davis v. De
The confusion, in the jurisprudence concerning the status of harbor workers, wrought by the ill-starred Jensen case,
Even when Congress sought to rectify the effect of this unhappy decision by. specifically making state compensation acts applicable to waterfront workers, the obdurate court declared these efforts unconstitutional by imposing a uniformity test to protect “the integrity of the admiralty law.” See State of Washington v. W. C. Dawson & Co., 264 U.S. 219, 44 S.Ct. 302, 68 L.Ed. 646, and Knickerbocker Ice Co. v. Stewart, 253 U.S. 149, 40 S.Ct. 438, 64 L.Ed. 834. Congress then passed its own compensation statute and specifically provided therein that it would begin only where state compensation laws ended. 33 U.S.C.A. § 903(a). It limited coverage to the accidents over water, 33 U.S.C.A. § 903(a), and fixed liability for compensation on employers whose employees are “in maritime employment, in whole or in part, upon the navigable waters of the United States.” 33 U.S.C.A. § 902(4), § 904(a).
In placing these limitations on coverage under the Act, Congress “accepted the Jensen line of demarcation between state and federal jurisdiction.” Davis v. Department of Labor, supra, 317 U.S. at page 256, 63 S.Ct. at page 229.
The case at bar, however, falls outside the twilight zone. It presents the precise situation rejected in Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen,
The twilight zone cases relied on by plaintiff here all present questions of coverage based on the maritime employment test set up in 33 U.S.C.A. § 904(a) as illumined by the definition of employer in 33 U.S.C.A. § 902(4). In Davis, supra, the employer was the Manson Construction and Engineering Company. In Bethlehem Steel Co. v. Moores, supra, the employer was Bethlehem Steel Company, a self-insurer, and in Baskin v. Industrial Accident Commission, supra, the employer was the Kaiser Company, operator of a shipyard in which the petitioner in compensation was a materialman. The operations of these employers, while maritime in part, were nevertheless primarily of local concern. All of these cases, therefore, presented questions of coverage under the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Act. In each there was a question as to whether or not the employer’s employees were “employed in maritime employment.” 33 U.S.C.A. § 902(4), § 904(a).
Here we have no such problem. The accident occurred over water, the employer was a stevedore and the decedent was a longshoreman, both unquestioned maritime employments. To apply state law in these circumstances would work “material prejudice to the characteristic features of the general maritime law.” Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, supra, 244 U.S. at page 216, 37 S.Ct. at page 529; Davis v. Department of Labor, supra, 317 U.S. at page 253, 63 S.Ct. at page 227. This is precisely the situation which required the passage of the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Act. Pennsylvania R. Co. v. O’Rourke, supra, 344 U.S. at page 337, 73 S.Ct. at page 304. To find it inapplicable here would be to read it out of the statute book altogether.
Plaintiff here was given an opportunity by this court to repair to the Bureau of Employees’ Compensation, U. S. Department of Labor, there to file her claim under the Longshoremen’s and Harbor
Judgment for defendant.
. LSA-R.S. 23:1021 et seq.
. 33 U.S.C.A. § 901 et seq.
. LSA-R.S. 23:1035.
. Richard v. Lake Charles Stevedores, La.App., 95 So.2d 830; see also Beadle v. Massachusetts Bonding & Insurance Co., La.App., 87 So.2d 339.
. Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, 244 U.S. 205, 37 S.Ct. 524, 61 L.Ed. 1086.
. See also Pennsylvania R. Co. v. O’Rourke, 344 U.S. 334, 338, 73 S.Ct. 302, 97 L.Ed. 367.
. 46 U.S.C.A. § 688. See Millers’ Indemnity Underwriters v. Brand, 270 U.S. 59, 46 S.Ct. 194, 70 L.Ed. 470; Maryland Casualty Co. v. Toups, 5 Cir., 172 E.2d 542.
. Like decedent here, Jensen was a longshoreman who was killed while working aboard an ocean-going vessel.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Mrs. Gladys NOAH v. LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY
- Status
- Published