United States Casualty Co. v. Taylor

• Decision Date: 04 April 1933
• Docket Number: 3411.,No. 3410,3410
• Citation: 64 F.2d 521
• Parties: UNITED STATES CASUALTY CO. v. TAYLOR et ux. TAYLOR et ux. v. UNITED STATES CASUALTY CO. et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

64 F.2d 521 (1933)

UNITED STATES CASUALTY CO. v. TAYLOR et ux.

TAYLOR et ux. v. UNITED STATES CASUALTY CO. et al.

Nos. 3410, 3411.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

April 4, 1933.

Frederick H. Horlbeck, of Charleston, S. C. (Julian Mitchell, Jr., of Charleston, S. C., on the brief), for United States Casualty Co.

John I. Cosgrove, of Charleston, S. C. (Paul M. Macmillan, of Charleston, S. C., on the brief), for John and Olive Taylor.

Before PARKER, NORTHCOTT, and SOPER, Circuit Judges.

SOPER, Circuit Judge.

No. 3410.

The question in this case is whether the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act of March 4, 1927, c. 509, 44 Stat. 1424, 33 USCA §§ 901 to 950, covers the case of a workman who has been injured while engaged in the construction of a new ship that has been launched and nearly but not quite completed. On February 27, 1930, Robert A. Taylor, an employee of the Charleston Dry Dock & Machine Company at Charleston, S. C., was engaged in drilling holes for the placing of lights on the mast of U. S. lightship No. 115, a vessel which the company was building. She had been launched and was then afloat at a dock in the Cooper river, and was 96 or 97 per cent. complete. While doing the work, Taylor fell to the deck and received injuries from which he died on the same day. His parents filed a claim for compensation under the act in the office of the appropriate deputy commissioner, which was contested by the employer and by United States Casualty Company, its insurance carrier, on the ground that the injury and death of the employee occurred under circumstances not covered by the act, and that therefore the United States Employers' Compensation Commission lacked jurisdiction in the premises.

The deputy commissioner found the facts outlined above, and rejected the claim on the ground that the construction of a new vessel does not involve a maritime contract. The claimants then brought a bill of complaint against the deputy commissioner under the provisions of section 921 of USCA title 33 to secure an injunction restraining him from enforcing the order of rejection and to cause it to be set aside. The case was considered on the record made before the deputy commissioner; and the District Judge, observing that the question was new and not free from difficulty, held that the deceased was engaged in maritime employment at the time of his death, and that his injury and death fell within the purview of the act. He therefore decreed that the order of the deputy commissioner be reversed, and that he proceed to award compensation to the claimants in the manner provided by the statute. Subsequently, the insurance company was granted leave to intervene, and brought the case to this court on appeal.

The gist of the argument presented to sustain the decision of the District Court is that the place of the accident is the test of the jurisdiction of the Commission over claims for compensation for personal injury, just as the jurisdiction of the federal courts over maritime torts, as distinguished from their jurisdiction over matters of contract depends upon the locality of the wrong, State Industrial Commission v. Nordenholt Corp., 259 U. S. 263, 42 S. Ct. 473, 66 L. Ed. 933, 25 A. L. R. 1013; and that in each instance the power of Congress to deal with the matter rests upon the same basis. In Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22, 39, 55, 52 S. Ct. 285, 287, 76 L. Ed. 598, it was said: "As the act relates solely to injuries occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States, it deals with the maritime law, applicable to matters that fall within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction (Const. art. 3, § 2; Nogueira v. N. Y., N. H. & H. R. Co., 281 U. S. 128, 138, 50 S. Ct. 303, 74 L. Ed. 754), and the general authority of the Congress to alter or revise the maritime law which shall prevail throughout the country is beyond dispute. * * * In amending and revising the maritime law, the Congress cannot reach beyond the constitutional limits which are inherent in the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. Unless the injuries to which the act relates occur upon the navigable waters of the United States, they fall outside that jurisdiction. Not only is navigability itself a question of fact, as waters that are navigable in fact are navigable in law, but, where navigability is not in dispute, the locality of the injury, that is, whether it has occurred upon the navigable waters of the United States, determines the existence of the congressional power to create the liability prescribed by the statute."

State Legislatures first provided compensation for industrial injuries, irrespective of fault or negligence, and the attempt was made to apply the state laws to workmen engaged in maritime employment upon navigable waters; but it was held that the acts when so applied were in conflict with the provisions of article 3, § 2, and article 1, § 8, of the Federal Constitution, whereby Congress was given paramount power to fix and determine the maritime law which shall prevail throughout the country. Southern Pacific Company v. Jensen, 244 U. S. 205, 37 S. Ct. 524, 61 L. Ed. 1086, L. R. A. 1918C, 451, Ann. Cas. 1917E, 900. Thereupon Congress took notice of the gap in the application of compensation laws to industrial workers in this country and successively passed two acts by which it undertook to permit the application of state workmen's compensation laws to injuries received by employees engaged upon maritime work within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. See the Act of October 6, 1917, c. 97, 40 Stat. 395, and the Act of June 10, 1922, c. 216, 42 Stat. 634 (28 USCA §§ 41(3), 371). Both of these acts, however, were held to be unconstitutional as a delegation of the legislative power of Congress and as defeating the purpose of the Constitution respecting the harmony and uniformity of the maritime law. Knickerbocker Ice Co. v. Stewart, 253 U. S. 149, 40 S. Ct. 438, 64 L. Ed. 834, 11 A. L. R. 1145; Washington v. W. C. Dawson & Co., 264 U. S. 219, 44 S. Ct. 302, 68 L. Ed. 646. To meet this situation, the present act of 1927 was passed, whereby Congress enacted a statute defining the persons to be affected and the injuries to be covered, and providing machinery whereby the claims of injured parties could be examined and enforced. The obvious purpose of this act was to accomplish within its sphere the same general purpose as the workmen's compensation laws of the states. Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22, 40, 52 S. Ct. 285, 76 L. Ed. 598.

Emphasizing these considerations, the appellee contends that it was the intent of Congress to exercise its power to the full extent, and that, if an injury has occurred on navigable water, and the other limitations of the act are observed, it is immaterial that the employee was not engaged in maritime employment or in the execution of a maritime contract in the literal sense of these terms. We are not concerned with the power of Congress to include within the scheme of a federal compensation law the kind of employment involved in this case, unless it appears that it was the intention of Congress to cover it within the terms of the act. Congress obviously did not intend to cover all possible maritime employees, for by section 903 it expressly provided that no compensation should be payable in respect of the disability or death of a master or member of a crew of any vessel, or any person engaged in loading, unloading, or repairing a small vessel under eighteen tons net. There are other limitations in the act. Section 902(4) defines the term "employer" as an employer any of whose employees are employed in maritime employment, in whole or in part, upon the navigable waters of the United States. The term "employee" is not otherwise defined, but the act is obviously restricted to persons engaged in maritime employment. So it was said by the Chief Justice in Nogueira v. N. Y., N. H. & H. R. Co., 281 U. S. 128, 131, 50 S. Ct. 303, 74 L. Ed. 754: "The general scheme of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act was to provide compensation to employees engaged in maritime employment, except as stated, for disability or death resulting from injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States where recovery through workmen's compensation proceedings might not validly be provided by state law"; and again, in Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22, 37, 38, 52 S. Ct. 285, 287, 76 L. Ed. 598: "The act has two limitations that are fundamental. It deals exclusively with compensation in respect of disability or death resulting `from an injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States' if recovery `through workmen's compensation proceedings may not validly be provided by State law,' and it applies only when the relation of master and servant exists."

Section 903(a) of the act provides: "Compensation shall be payable under this chapter in respect of disability or death of an employee, but only if the disability or death results from an injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States (including any dry dock) and if recovery for the disability or death through workmen's compensation proceedings may not validly be provided by State law." We are particularly concerned here with so much of this limitation as restricts recovery to those instances where recovery through workmen's compensation proceedings may not validly be provided by state law. The significance of this phrase was brought out in Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 39, 52 S. Ct. 285, 287, 76 L. Ed. 598, where it was said: "In limiting the application of the act to cases where recovery `through workmen's compensation proceedings may not validly be provided by State law,' the Congress evidently had in view the decisions of this Court with respect to the scope of the exclusive authority of the national Legislature. The propriety of providing by federal statute for compensation of employees in...