001 Longshore Intro

LONGSHORE 101

HISTORY OF THE LONGSHORE ACT

There are those, who believe

the Longshore Act's true purpose was entirely different....

Because New York City was the country's largest port at the time, the LHWCA was modeled after the New York Workers' Compensation Act.

The LHWCA can be characterized as a “wage replacement” statute with some features of a “permanency” statute.

Jensen Line.....

In Davis v. Department of Labor and Industries of Washington the Supreme Court recognized that, “[t]here is clearly a twilight zone in which the employees must have their rights determined case by case and in which particular facts and circumstances are vital elements." Thereafter, this “twilight zone” extended state jurisdiction to what had previously been exclusively federal jurisdiction.

THE 1972 AMENDMENTS

In 1972, the Miami Dolphins

were the team to beat...

The 1972 Amendments represented the first major overhaul of the statute since its enactment in 1927 and remain the most significant change in the Longshore Act to date. Notably, these amendments did not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they were part of a larger workers’ compensation reform movement that was sweeping the country at that time.

The 1972 Amendments to the LHWCA extended the statute’s jurisdictional reach to include "any adjoining pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal, building way, marine railway, or other adjoining area customarily used by an employer in loading, unloading, repairing, dismantling, or building a vessel.”

Other reforms enacted in 1972 include the transfer of many adjudicative functions away from the District Directors (then known as “Deputy Commissioners”), creation of the Benefits Review Board, and a general overhaul of the benefit levels.

The second set of major amendments to the Longshore Act occurred in 1984. These amendments made some technical corrections to the 1972 Amendments and made certain other changes to the LHWCA

Do You Remember One Reason

This Picture is Still Memorable?

Larry used it to

send a message!

Query: Are there any amendments "seriously"

under consideration by Congress today?

The 1972 resulted in a new cauldron of

jurisdictional uncertainty... 'situs' and 'status'

• Congress anticipated that the states would provide coverage to maritime workers, but
• Supreme Court ruled that maritime employees injured over navigable waters not be covered by state acts.
• This gave rise to “Jensen line” where stevedores crossed an imaginary line in and out of state coverage as they walked up and down the gangway

Covered.....

Not covered...

Congress anticpated the longshoremen and

shipyard workers would be covered under state workers' compensation laws... but...

Between 1905 and 1925 most states enacted workers'compensation statutes.

• Employee's gave up the right to sue
• Employers gave up common-law defenses

... the Supreme Court disagreed and in a series of

rulings held that workers injured while working on

navigable waters could not be covered by state workers compensation laws. Thus, the Jensen Line

was born.. and workers began to walk in and out

of coverage....