Sessa v. Weeks Stevedoring Co.
| Decision Date | 04 June 1943 |
| Citation | 56 F. Supp. 50 |
| Parties | SESSA v. WEEKS STEVEDORING CO., Inc. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Benjamin Green, of New York City (Jacob Rassner, of New York City, of counsel), for plaintiff.
Duncan & Mount, of New York City (Roger Carroll, of New York City, of counsel), for defendant.
There has been interposed as a defense that an award was made herein pursuant to Section 933(b) of the Navigation and Navigable Waters Act, being Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, § 33, Title 33, Section 933 U.S.C.A., and that plaintiff was paid such award and that the award, therefore, under this Section 933 is a bar to this action.
Section 933(b) provides:
"Acceptance of such compensation under an award in a compensation order filed by the deputy commissioner shall operate as an assignment to the employer of all right of the person entitled to compensation to recover damages against such third person."
Under this section, if an award was made and compensation paid thereunder, such would operate as an assignment to the employer of all rights of the person entitled to compensation to recover damages against third persons.
It will be noted that Section 933(b) requires that the award in the compensation order be made by the Deputy Commissioner.
In the Circuit Court of Appeals for this circuit, in the case of Toomey v. Waterman S. S. Corporation, 123 F.2d 718, it was held that the requirements of this section are met if the Deputy Commissioner makes a note in his records of the disposition that he has made of the plaintiff's claim for compensation, and that, under these circumstances, though the act was informal, it was equivalent to an order and satisfied the provisions of the amendment.
In this instance, the defendant has offered in evidence a paper received from the United States Employees' Compensation Commission dated November 3, 1942, being defendant's Exhibit A, and it reads as follows:
"Claimant herein alleges that on March 16, 1942, while employed as a longshoreman loading the S. S. Ocean Vanguard which was afloat in New York Harbor, Brooklyn, N. Y., he was struck on the back of the head by a 4" × 4" piece of lumber which snapped from a draft of steel plate as the same was being lowered and fell, which resulted in contusion of the scalp and fracture of the left wrist. As a result...
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Rodriguez v. Compass Shipping Co. Ltd., 77 Civ. 3378 (RLC).
...Roeben v. United States, 113 F.Supp. 732 (D.N.J. 1953); Romano v. United States, 90 F.Supp. 15 (S.D.N.Y. 1950); Sessa v. Weeks Stevedoring Co., 56 F.Supp. 50 (S.D.N.Y. 1943). This literal reading of the statute seems to have been motivated by concern about the harsh consequences for the inj......
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Rodriguez v. Compass Shipping Co. Ltd.
...Grasso v. Lorentzen, 149 F.2d 127, 129 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 326 U.S. 743, 66 S.Ct. 57, 90 L.Ed. 444 (1945); Sessa v. Weeks Stevedoring Co., 56 F.Supp. 50 (S.D.N.Y.1943). These decisions, however, represented an effort to relieve claimants from the harshness of the Act as it existed prio......
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Barulec v. Skou
...54 (S.D. N.Y.1944), aff'd, 149 F.2d 127 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 326 U.S. 743, 66 S.Ct. 57, 90 L.Ed. 444 (1945); Sessa v. Weeks Stevedoring Co., 56 F.Supp. 50, 51 (S.D.N.Y.1943); see Lumber Mutual Casualty Insurance Co. v. Locke, 60 F.2d 35, 37 (2d Cir. 1932). For instance, in Sessa v. Week......
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Roeben v. United States, Civ. No. 929.
...Examiner, rather than a Deputy Commissioner, does not suffice to assign the above right to sue the employer. Sessa v. Weeks Stevedoring Co., D.C.S.D.N.Y. 1943, 56 F.Supp. 50. Nor is Toomey v. Waterman S. S. Corp., 2 Cir., 1941, 123 F. 2d 718, to the contrary. Here it was held that action, n......