Oman v. Johns-Manville Corp.
| Decision Date | 06 June 1985 |
| Docket Number | 82-2042,Nos. 82-1821,JOHNS-MANVILLE,s. 82-1821 |
| Citation | 764 F.2d 224 |
| Parties | , 53 USLW 2618, Prod.Liab.Rep.(CCH)P 10,602 James T. OMAN; Fred R. Walker; Willie A. Gibbons, and Hugh V. Reynolds, Appellees, v.CORP.; Johns-Manville Sales Corporation, Successor by merger with Johns-Manville Products Corporation; Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc.; The Celotex Corporation; Unarco Industries, Inc.; H.K. Porter Company; Southern Textile Corporation; Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc.; Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., Defendants, and Pittsburgh Corning Corporation, Appellant. James T. OMAN; Fred R. Walker; Willie A. Gibbons and Hugh V. Reynolds, Appellees, v.CORP.; Johns-Manville Sales Corporation, Successor by merger with Johns-Manville Products Corporation; The Celotex Corporation; Unarco Industries, Inc.; Southern Textile Corporation and Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc., Defendants, and Raybestos Manhattan, Inc. (now Raymark Industries, Inc.); H.K. Porter Company and Pittsburgh Corning Corporation, Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Archibald Wallace, III, Richmond, Va. (Nathan H. Smith, Sands, Anderson, Marks & Miller, Richmond, Va., John B. King, Jr., Robert L. O'Donnell, Vandeventer, Black, Meredith & Martin, Norfolk, Va., William V. Hoyle, Charles A. Smith, W. Vinton Hoyle, Jr., Hoyle, Corbett, Hubbard & Smith, Newport News, Va., on brief), for appellants.
Joel I. Klein, Washington, D.C. (Paul M. Smith, Onek, Klein & Farr, Washington, D.C., Robert R. Hatten, Patten, Wornom & Watkins, Newport News, Va., Richard S. Glasser, Glasser & Glasser, Norfolk, Va., on brief), for appellees.
Before WINTER, Chief Judge, and WIDENER, HALL, PHILLIPS, MURNAGHAN, SPROUSE, ERVIN and CHAPMAN, Circuit Judges.
In this consolidated appeal we consider whether the federal courts may assert admiralty jurisdiction over manufacturers of products containing asbestos for injuries to land-based ship repair workers which injuries were allegedly caused by exposure to air-borne asbestos fibers. The parties argued this appeal before a three-judge panel on November 1, 1983. On June 6, 1984, this Court, sua sponte, called for an en banc hearing of this appeal to reconsider White v. Johns-Manville Corporation, 662 F.2d 234 (4th Cir.1981) (White II ). Today we overrule White II, adopt a four-part nexus test and hold, under the nexus test, that the federal courts may not exercise admiralty jurisdiction over damage claims by land-based ship repair or construction workers for employment-related, asbestos induced disease. In doing so we reverse the district court and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
This appeal grows out of four of the thousands of cases brought throughout this country against the manufacturers of asbestos containing products by workers who have contracted asbestosis and its related diseases. Plaintiffs, James T. Oman, Fred R. Walker, Hugh V. Reynolds, and Willie A. Gibbons, were land-based shipyard workers for Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. They claim to have contracted asbestosis after being exposed to asbestos fibers in the course of their employment.
In 1976 each plaintiff brought an action in federal court against the defendants, Johns-Manville Corp., Johns-Manville Sales Corporation, successor by merger with Johns-Manville Products Corporation; Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc.; The Celotex Corporation; Unarco Industries, Inc.; H.K. Porter Company; Southern Textile Corporation; Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc.; Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. Generally, injured workers bring these types of actions in state court or in the federal courts under diversity jurisdiction. In either forum state substantive law governs. These plaintiffs, however, alleged that the district court could exercise its admiralty jurisdiction in their cases because of their employment in a shipyard. They claim to be in admiralty but they admittedly do not perform tasks traditionally done by sailors.
After consolidating these cases, the district court, in March 1978, issued an order declining to assert admiralty jurisdiction because the alleged injuries bore no reasonable relationship to traditional maritime activity. Throughout the entire history of these cases the defendants have objected to the exercise of admiralty jurisdiction.
After the trial of their cases plaintiffs appealed from the March 1978 order, as well as two others. 1 A three-judge panel of this court vacated the order of the district court. White, 662 F.2d at 238-40.
Since White II was decided five other courts of appeal 2 have considered this issue and for different reasons have rejected White II either in whole or in part. By different analyses, each circuit has concluded that admiralty jurisdiction does not extend to damage claims by land-based ship repair or construction workers for employment-related, asbestos-induced disease.
We now join these circuits. Before we conduct the analysis by which we reach this decision, we must discuss admiralty jurisdiction in general and our reasons for overruling White II.
Historically, federal courts used a situs or locality test to determine if a tort action was within admiralty jurisdiction. If the tort occurred upon the high seas or navigable waters the federal court could exercise its admiralty jurisdiction pursuant to Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution and 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1333(1). See The Plymouth, 70 U.S. (3 Wall) 20, 35-36, 18 L.Ed. 125 (1866). The federal courts tend to exercise admiralty jurisdiction restrictively because its use invokes substantive maritime law which "may tend to preempt state regulation of matters traditionally within the ambit of local control." Harville v. Johns-Manville Products Corp., 731 F.2d 775, 780 (11th Cir.1984). In discussing this principle the Supreme Court has stated:
The power reserved to the states, under the Constitution, to provide for the determination of controversies in their courts may be restricted only by the action of Congress in conformity to the judiciary sections of the Constitution ... Due regard for the rightful independence of state governments, which should actuate federal courts, requires that they scrupulously confine their own jurisdiction to the precise limits which [a federal] statute has defined.
Executive Jet Aviation, Inc. v. Cleveland, 409 U.S. 249, 272-73, 93 S.Ct. 493, 506-07, 34 L.Ed.2d 454 (1972) (quoting Victory Carriers, Inc. v. Law, 404 U.S. 202, 212, 92 S.Ct. 418, 425, 30 L.Ed.2d 383 (1971) ).
In Executive Jet the Supreme Court rejected the use of the mechanical and simplistic locality test as the exclusive test for admiralty jurisdiction. In reaching this decision the Supreme Court discussed some of the problems with the locality test, especially the absurdity of invoking admiralty jurisdiction for torts which satisfy the locality test, but have absolutely no connection with maritime activity, Executive Jet, 409 U.S. at 255-56, 93 S.Ct. at 498, and discussed the creation of numerous exceptions to the rule. Id. at 259-60, 93 S.Ct. at 500. In light of this, the Supreme Court held that the location of the tort in maritime waters was insufficient by itself to invoke admiralty jurisdiction. To the traditional maritime location requirement the Court added an additional requirement that the wrong bear a "significant relationship to traditional maritime activity." Id. at 268, 93 S.Ct. at 504. In applying this additional nexus requirement the Court found it necessary to consider the history and purpose of admiralty law:
The law of admiralty has evolved over many centuries, designed and molded to handle problems of vessels relegated to ply the waterways of the world, beyond whose shores they cannot go. That law deals with navigational rules--rules that govern the manner and direction those vessels may rightly move upon the waters. When a collision occurs or a ship founders at sea, the law of admiralty looks to those rules to determine fault, liability, and all other questions that may arise from such a catastrophe. Through long experience, the law of the sea knows how to determine whether a particular ship is seaworthy, and it knows the nature of maintenance and cure. It is concerned with maritime liens, the general average, captures and prizes, limitation of liability, cargo damage, and claims for salvage.
Id. at 269-70, 93 S.Ct. at 505. This rationale underlying admiralty jurisdiction gives us guidance in deciding when the "law of the sea" should govern a particular case.
Executive Jet involved the crash of an airplane into Lake Erie and the Supreme Court did not clearly indicate that the additional nexus requirement applied to all tort cases in which a party sought to invoke admiralty jurisdiction. In Foremost Insurance Co. v. Richardson, 457 U.S. 668, 102 S.Ct. 2654, 73 L.Ed.2d 300 (1982), the Supreme Court made it clear that this two part test for admiralty jurisdiction applied to all tort cases in which a party sought to invoke the federal court's admiralty jurisdiction. Id. at 674, 102 S.Ct. at 2658; see Myhran v. Johns-Manville Corp., 741 F.2d 1119, 1121 (9th Cir.1984); Harville, 731 F.2d at 781.
We must review White II in light of the Supreme Court's reasoning in Executive Jet and Foremost Insurance. In White II this court first held that the location test had been met. We agree with White II that the plaintiffs' injuries satisfy the locality test.
In the present case, the plaintiff employees alleged in their complaint that they had installed asbestos insulation materials during ship construction and repair in the course of their employment with Newport News. Their work was performed at both the shipyard and drydock areas as well as aboard the vessels while they were located on navigable waters. Thus, the allegations would meet the locality test of Executive Jet.
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