Wellsville Terminals Co. v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board

610 A.2d 520, 148 Pa. Commw. 197, 1992 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 394
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 22, 1992
DocketNo. 2236 C.D. 1990
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 610 A.2d 520 (Wellsville Terminals Co. v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wellsville Terminals Co. v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board, 610 A.2d 520, 148 Pa. Commw. 197, 1992 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 394 (Pa. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinions

PALLADINO, Judge.

Wellsville Terminals Company (Employer) appeals an order of the Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Board) which affirmed the order of a referee granting worker’s compensation benefits for total disability to Donald Zacharias (Claimant).

Claimant, who was employed by Employer as a welder, filed a claim petition, on March 9, 1977, alleging that he sustained injuries to his lower left leg, on August 4, 1975, during the course of his employment, when he fell down the slope sheet on the rake of the barge he was repairing.

Employer moved to dismiss Claimant’s petition on the ground that the Pennsylvania Bureau of Worker’s Compensation is without jurisdiction over the claim because Claimant’s [199]*199exclusive remedy falls within the federal Longshoremen and Harbor Worker’s Compensation Act (LHWCA), 33 U.S.C. §§ 901-950.

The referee dismissed the claim petition, and the Claimant appealed to the Board. The Board remanded the case to the referee to make findings of fact and conclusions of law. The Board stated the following in its opinion:

It is presumed that the referee knows that there is a recent United States Supreme Court decision in the case of Sun Ship, Inc., vs. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 48 Law Week 4826, 1980, that indicates in certain matters there is concurrent jurisdiction between the State and Federal authorities.

Board’s Opinion of January 29, 1981 at 1.

After the case was remanded to the referee, Employer filed an answer to Claimant’s claim petition denying the allegations of the petition.

After hearings, the referee concluded that the claim petition was properly before the Pennsylvania Bureau of Worker’s Compensation under Sun Ship, Inc. v. Pennsylvania, 447 U.S. 715, 100 S.Ct. 2432, 65 L.Ed.2d 458 (1980), and that claimant had met his burden of proving that he was totally disabled as a result of the August 4, 1975 injury. Employer appealed the referee’s decision to the Board, which affirmed.

On appeal,1 Employer raises the following issue: whether the Board erred in holding that concurrent jurisdiction exists under both the LHWCA and The Pennsylvania Workmen’s Compensation Act (PWCA)2 for an injury sustained by Claimant while Claimant was engaged in a maritime activity on a navigable water.

[200]*200The question of concurrent jurisdiction arises because while the PWCA states that it applies “to all injuries occurring within the Commonwealth----” 77 P.S. § 1, the LHWCA states that it applies to injuries “occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States (including any adjoining pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal ... or other adjoining area customarily used by an employer in loading, unloading, repairing, dismantling or building a vessel).” 33 U.S.C. § 903(a).

With respect to the location of Claimant’s employment, the referee made the following findings which have not been challenged on appeal:

8. ... [0]n August 4, 1975 and for approximately five months prior thereto, the claimant had been assigned by his employer to work in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at least 3-4 days per week.
9. ... [I]n the course of his employment the claimant was furnished with a company owned vehicle and required to transport himself and other employees between Ohio and Pennsylvania on a daily basis.
10. ... [0]n August 4, 1975 the claimant was employed as a welder and was assigned to cleaning and repairing barges owned by the Valley Barge Lines.
11. ... [T]he principle [sic] facilities of the Valley Barge Lines at the West End Bridge Terminal were located on a work barge floating on the Ohio River and cabled to the shore.
13. ... [0]n August 4, 1975 in the course of his employment the claimant fell down the slope sheet on the rake of the barge he was repairing and sustained lacerations to the lower left leg.

Referee’s opinion of January 7, 1988 at 3-4.

A long line of Supreme Court cases, ending with the Sun Ship case, has dealt with the law of compensation for maritime workers. The Supreme Court’s Sun Ship opinion sets forth a complete history of this area of the law which can briefly be summarized as follows. In 1917, the Supreme Court held, in Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, 244 U.S. 205, 37 S.Ct. 524, 61 [201]*201L.Ed. 1086 (1917), that it was unconstitutional for the states to apply their worker’s compensation systems to maritime injuries because it would interfere with the federal policy of uniform maritime law. Since Jensen, the Supreme Court has narrowed this rule by providing, in some cases, that state remedies are available to maritime claimants because their circumstances are maritime, yet local, in character. The LHWCA was enacted in 1927 and at that time provided that compensation was payable under the LHWCA for an injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States only if recovery through workmen’s compensation proceedings could not validly be provided by state law. Sun Ship. After the LHWCA was enacted, the Supreme Court wrestled with the question of where the boundary between state and federal jurisdiction over compensation for maritime injuries should lie. In Sun Ship, the Supreme Court interpreted the status of the law, prior to 1972, with respect to jurisdiction over marine-related injuries, as follows:

Before 1972, then, marine-related injuries fell within one of three jurisdictional spheres as they moved landward. At the farthest extreme, Jensen commanded that non-local maritime injuries fall within the LHWCA. ‘Maritime but local’ injuries ‘upon the navigable waters of the United States,’ 38 U.S.C. § 903(a), could be compensated under the LHWCA or state law. And injuries suffered beyond the navigable waters—albeit within the range of federal admiralty jurisdiction—were remediable only under state law. Nacirema [Operating] Co. v. Johnson, supra [396 U.S. 212, 90 S.Ct. 347, 24 L.Ed.2d 371 (1969) ].

Id. at 719, 100 S.Ct. at 2436.

In 1972, Congress amended the LHWCA to extend the jurisdiction of the act landward beyond the shore line of the navigable waters of the United States. The act was amended to provide as follows:

§ 903. Coverage
(a) Disability or death; injuries occurring upon navigable waters of United States
[202]

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Related

Hill v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board
703 A.2d 74 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1997)
Wellsville Terminals Co. v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board
632 A.2d 1305 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1993)

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610 A.2d 520, 148 Pa. Commw. 197, 1992 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 394, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wellsville-terminals-co-v-workmens-compensation-appeal-board-pacommwct-1992.