workers' compensation

Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend

Issues

Can a seaman recover punitive damages if he is injured on the job and his employer refuses to pay for his medical treatment and lost wages?

Court below

United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Edgar L. Townsend, a seaman, was injured while working aboard his ship. His employers refused to supply him with maintenance and cure, which covers medical care and wages for injured seamen, in violation of the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688, and general maritime law. Townsend sought punitive damages for this refusal. Townsend's employers sought declaratory relief on the punitive damages claim, arguing that Miles v. Apex Marine Corp., 498 U.S. 19 (1990), prohibited all claims of punitive damages under general maritime law, because they are not specified in the Jones Act, and because punitive damages are non-pecuniary. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that while Miles's reasoning is meant to provide uniformity in the application of the Jones Act and general maritime law, the holding of Miles addressed only loss of society damages in a wrongful death suit; it did not address punitive damages in a maintenance and cure claim. Therefore, the Eleventh Circuit held that they were still bound by their prior ruling in Hines v. J.A. LaPorte, Inc., 820 F.2d 1187 (11th Cir. 1987), which specifically allows for the recovery of punitive damages. There is currently a circuit split on the issue, as the First, Fifth, and Eleventh Circuit Courts have awarded punitive damages as a remedy for failure to provide maintenance and cure, while the Second, Third, and Ninth Circuit Courts have applied the Miles uniformity principle and awarded only pecuniary damages. The Supreme Court's holding in this case will settle the circuit split and decide whether courts may award punitive damages in maintenance and cure claims.

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

May a seaman recover punitive damages for the willful failure to pay maintenance and cure? The Eleventh Circuit's decision below holds in the affirmative, but conflicts with the Second, Third, Fifth and Ninth Circuits as well as two state courts of last resort, the reasoning of Miles v. Apex Marine Corp., 498 U.S. 19 (1990), and Vaughan v. Atkinson, 369 U.S. 527 (1962).

Edgar L. Townsend was a seaman and crew member on a ship called the Motor Tug Thomas. See Atl. Sounding Co. v. Townsend, 496 F.3d 1282, 1283 (11th Cir.

Written by

mselss

kworthington

Edited by

lbuechner

Additional Resources

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Pacific Operators Offshore v. Valladolid

Issues

Whether an injured outer continental shelf worker can collect compensation benefits under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act when the injury occurred while working on land.

Court below

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Juan Valladolid, an employee of the Petitioner, Pacific Operators Offshore, died when a forklift crushed him at Pacific's oil-processing facility on the California coast. Valladolid’s widow filed a claim for federal workers’ compensation under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”), but the claim was rejected because Valladolid died on land rather than on the outer continental shelf. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed, holding that OCSLA benefits are not limited to injuries or deaths that occur on the outer continental shelf. Rather, the court held, coverage depends on the existence of a causal nexus between the injury or death and operations on the outer continental shelf. Petitioner Pacific argues that OCSLA contains a strict “situs-of-injury” requirement, while Respondent Valladolid contends that such a requirement would defeat Congressional intent. The Supreme Court’s decision will resolve a longstanding question of statutory interpretation, and may shed light on the Court’s current approach to workers’ compensation laws.

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. §§ 1331-1356 (OCSLA), governs those who work on oil drilling platforms and other fixed structures beyond state maritime boundaries. Workers are eligible for compensation for “any injury occurring as the result of operations conducted on the outer Continental Shelf.” 43 U.S.C. § 1333(b) (2006). When an outer continental shelf worker is injured on land, is he (or his heir):

(1) always eligible for compensation, because his employer’s operations on the shelf are the but for cause of his injury (as the Third Circuit holds); or

(2) never eligible for compensation, because the Act applies only to injuries occurring on the shelf (as the Fifth Circuit holds); or

(3) sometimes eligible for compensation, because eligibility for benefits depends on the nature and extent of the factual relationship between the injury and the operations on the shelf (as the Ninth Circuit holds)?

In 1953, Congress passed the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”) to regulate use of the outer continental shelf, defined as all submerged lands beyond the states’ three-mile coastal jurisdiction. See 43 U.S.C.

Written by

wac57

twang

Edited by

eshertzer

Additional Resources

Litigation Management Magazine: Expanding Coverage: Federal Compensation Coverage for Offshore Oil Industry Workers (Fall 2011)
Mayer Brown: Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Pacific Operations Offshore, LLP v. Valladolid (Feb. 23, 2011)
Business Insurance: Supreme Court to Hear Case of Worker Killed Offshore (Feb. 22, 2011)

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Roberts v. Sea-Land Services

Issues

Whether, in order to determine the appropriate method for calculating the maximum and minimum compensation owed under Section 6 of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, “newly awarded compensation” means that compensation is awarded at the time the employee becomes entitled to the compensation, or at the time the administrative order directing compensation is issued.

Court below

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

In 2002, Petitioner Dana Roberts slipped on a patch of ice while working for his employer, Respondent Sea-Land Services. After the fall, Roberts claimed disability and sought compensation under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. Initially, Sea-Land paid Roberts, but, in May 2005, Sea-Land discontinued payments. An administrative law judge ordered Sea-Land to resume payments, but a dispute arose concerning the proper method for calculating payment. In this case, the Supreme Court will decide when Petitioner Roberts was “newly awarded compensation” under the Act. Roberts argues that this occurred in 2007, when the administrative law judge entered the compensation order. However, Sea-Land Services argues that the judge correctly determined that this occurred in 2002, the year Roberts became entitled to compensation. The Court’s decision will determine which fiscal year is used to calculate the maximum compensation owed. The result could substantially increase Roberts’s compensation under the Act, and will determine how such calculations are performed in similar federal compensation programs.

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

The Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 901-50 ("Longshore Act") provides generally for compensation for total disability in periodic payments at a rate of two-thirds of the "average weekly wage of the injured employee at the time of the injury," and for most partial disabilities the same fraction of the difference between that weekly wage and the worker's residual "wage-earning capacity." §§ 8-10, 33 U.S.C. §§ 908-10. But it has always imposed upper and lower limits on the rate payable as so determined.

Section 6(b) of the Act, 33 U.S.C. § 906(b), provides that the compensation rate cannot be more than twice "the applicable national average weekly wage," as determined for each fiscal year; nor can compensation for total disability be less than the lesser of half the "applicable national average weekly wage" so determined and the worker's full pre-injury earnings.

The question which fiscal year's limits are the "applicable" ones is addressed by § 6(c):

Determinations under subsection (b)(3) of this section with respect to a [fiscal year] shall apply to employees or survivors currently receiving compensation for permanent total disability or death benefits during such period, as well as those newly awarded compensation during such period. 33 U.S.C. § 906(c). The identity of the years whose limits are "applicable" under this provision has divided the two courts of appeals with the heaviest Longshore Act dockets.

The questions presented are simple and straightforward:

1. Whether the phrase "those newly awarded compensation during such period" in Longshore Act § 6(c), applicable to all classes of disability except permanent total, can be read to mean "those first entitled to compensation during such period," regardless of when it is awarded.

2. Whether the phrase "employees or survivors currently receiving compensation for permanent total disability or death benefits during such period" in § 6(c) can likewise be read to mean those "entitled to [such] compensation during such period," without reference to when it is received.

Petitioner Dana Roberts worked as a gatehouse dispatcher in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for Respondent Sea-Land Services (“Sea-Land”). See Roberts v. Office of Workers’ Comp. Programs, 625 F.3d 1204, 1205 (9th Cir.