14 So. 2d 287 | La. Ct. App. | 1943
This suit was filed in the Civil District Court by the surviving brother and sister of one Rodney Rhinehart, who was drowned on August 20th 1940 when he fell into the Mississippi River from a barge owned by his employer, T. Smith Son, Inc., which he was compelled to traverse in leaving the S.S. Ada O, where he had been engaged in work as a longshoreman. The action is against Rhinehart's employer to recover damages for his death under Article
To plaintiffs' petition, the defendant employer interposed a number of exceptions. Among these exceptions was a plea to the jurisdiction of the district court, ratione materiae, which was predicated on the ground that, since Rhinehart met his death while employed as a longshoreman upon the navigable waters of the United States, the sole remedy of the plaintiffs was for the compensation payable under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C.A. §§ 901-950, and that the state court was, therefore, without jurisdiction to entertain the suit. In support of this exception, evidence was introduced by the defendant to show the nature of the deceased's employment and that he met his death on navigable waters of the United States while in the course and scope of his duties as a longshoreman. This evidence, which is not in dispute, reveals the following facts: On the date of the fatal accident, the decedent was engaged by the defendant as a longshoreman to unload the S.S. Ada O which was moored in the Mississippi River at Stuyvesant docks in the city of New Orleans. He came on duty at 5 p.m. and, in order to reach the Ada O where his work was to be done, he was required to traverse a barge called the "Mammoth" which was adjacent to the dock, then cross the S.S. Saccarapa which was adjacent to the Mammoth, then across two barges, the James and the Williams, which were tied end to end and in contact with the Saccarapa, and then from the Williams to the S.S. Ada O. After reaching the S.S. Ada O, the deceased worked one hour (from 5 p.m. until 6 p.m.), laid off an hour (from 6 p.m. until 7 p.m.), resumed work at 7 p.m. and worked until 8 p.m., when his work for that day ended. At about ten minutes after eight o'clock, while the deceased was leaving the place of his employment and returning to the dock, he fell into the river between the barges James and Williams.
After hearing the foregoing evidence, the district judge concluded that, since Rhinehart had met his death on navigable waters of the United States while engaged in his employment as a longshoreman, the action for his death was cognizable only under the provisions of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Act. He accordingly sustained the defendant's plea of jurisdiction and dismissed the plaintiffs' suit, being of the opinion that the Civil District Court was without jurisdiction to grant relief to the plaintiffs either under article
It is clear, from the admitted facts of the case, that the plaintiffs are without a cause of action under the State Workmen's Compensation law because the accident occurred upon navigable waters of the United States. Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen,
"The liability of an employer prescribed in section 904 of this chapter shall be exclusive and in place of all other liability ofsuch employer to the employee, his legal representative, husbandor wife, parents, dependents, next of kin, and anyone otherwiseentitled to recover damages from such employer at law or inadmiralty on account of such injury or death, * * *" (Italics ours.)
There can be no doubt whatever as to the plain import of the above quoted language. Simply stated, the effect of the provision is that all remedies formerly possessed by an employee (covered by the statute) to proceed, ex delicto, under the state law or in admiralty on a cause of action based upon the negligence of the employer, have been superseded and the remedies granted by the Act substituted therefor. This was settled by the Supreme Court of the United States in Nogueira v. New York, N.H. N.R. Co., supra, and South Chicago Coal Dock Co. v. Bassett,
However, counsel for plaintiff contend that the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Act has not deprived plaintiffs of the right given them by Article
The contention is not well founded. It is firmly established in the jurisprudence of the courts of this State and of the United States that an employee is, for the purpose of recovery under state or federal compensation acts, regarded to be within the course and scope of his employment when he is injured or killed while going to or leaving the premises of his master as a consequence of a hazard which he is required to encounter by reason of his employment, to which the public generally is not subjected. See Walker v. Lykes Brothers-Ripley S.S. Co., La.App., 166 So. 624; Kern v. Southport Mill,
Counsel for plaintiffs concede that, in the case at bar, the accident which befell Rhinehart would be compensable under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act as one arising out of and in the course of his employment, if claim was being made for compensation under that Act. But they proclaim that, since the rule (permitting employees to recover compensation for injuries received by them when they are coming to or leaving the employer's place of business as a result of hazards encountered by them which are peculiar to the nature of the employment) is founded upon a liberal interpretation of compensation laws in favor of the claimant and since such a liberal interpretation will not be adhered to in cases involving the master's liability for the servant's negligence insofar as third persons are concerned, there is no valid ground in this case to give the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act the broad interpretation which has been adopted by the courts because plaintiffs are not seeking compensation but are pursuing their rights as designated beneficiaries under Article
This argument, we think, is strikingly similar to the point made by the plaintiffs in the recent case of Atchison v. May,
The proposition advanced by plaintiffs in this case varies but slightly from the contention made by the plaintiffs in Atchison v. May. Here, the plaintiffs are in a somewhat similar position to the plaintiffs in that case, because they admittedly are not dependents of their deceased brother within the purview of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act and therefore cannot obtain the benefits provided by that statute. Furthermore, their counsel are forced to concede that, unless the court will resolve that Rhinehart's death did not result from an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, plaintiffs must suffer the same fate of the plaintiffs in the Atchison case, since the provisions of the federal act as to the exclusiveness of the remedy afforded thereunder have the effect of depriving them of the remedy given by Article
We think that the defect in the argument is that it fails to recognize the source of plaintiffs' right to sue under Article 2315 of our Civil Code. Rhinehart was killed on navigable waters of the United States. Therefore the right of action, if any, for his death was vested primarily in the courts of the United States under the maritime law. See Article 3, section 2 of the United States Constitution. It is true that Congress, in the enactment of the Judicial Code. 28 U.S.C.A. § 371 after providing that the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States shall be exclusive of the courts of the several states "* * * of all civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction * * *", declared that there should be saved "to suitors, in all cases, the right of a common-law remedy, where the common law is competent to give it * * *" and thus permitted the state courts to enforce the remedies provided by their own local laws, notwithstanding its unquestioned power to confine the trial of admiralty and maritime cases to the federal courts. However, by the passage of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, Congress specifically restricted the powers of the state courts to entertain actions under their own laws by declaring, in Section 5 of the Act, see Section 905, 33 U.S.C.A., that "liability of an employer prescribed in section 904 of this chapter shall be exclusive and in place of all other liability of such employer to the employee, his legal representative * * * dependents, next of kin, and anyone otherwise entitled to recover damages from suchemployer at law or in admiralty on account of such injury ordeath, * * *" (Italics ours.) *292
Hence, it is plain that, whereas Congress was vested with the power under the Constitution (see U.S.Const. Art. 3, Sec. 2; Art. 1, § 8, and Knickerbocker Ice Co. v. Stewart,
Thus, it is apparent that plaintiffs have no right of action to sue for the death of their brother under Article
Counsel for plaintiff next contend that, assuming that Rhinehart's death arose out of and in the course of his employment, the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Act is, nevertheless, not exclusive of the remedy granted to them by Article
The proposition is fully answered by what we have heretofore stated with respect to the effect of the passage of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Act. The cases cited by counsel were all decided before the passage of the Longshoremen's Act and merely hold that, where the employee is injured or killed on navigable waters of the United States, he or his survivors, in case of death, have a right to proceed under Article
Counsel next assert that, since the plaintiffs in this case are not afforded any relief whatever under the Longshoremen's
Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, they must have recourse to some other remedy, which remedy is Article
This contention has likewise been answered by what we have heretofore said and also by the decision in Atchison v. May, supra. The Longshoremen's Harbor Workers' Compensation Act limits the liability of the employer in cases of this kind to that provided by that law and abrogates the claims of any person entitled to recover damages against such employer, at law or in admiralty, on account of the injury or death of the employee.
In the lower court, counsel for plaintiffs questioned the constitutionality of the Longshoremen's Harbor Workers' Compensation Act. The point has been reserved and argued in this court. It is submitted that the act violates the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States (in that it deprives plaintiffs of their property without due process of law) and also the Tenth Amendment.
These points are without substance. The statute has been declared constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. See Crowell v. Benson,
We do not quite understand the respect in which the Longshoremen's Act is alleged to violate the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution, unless it be that counsel entertain the view that the power to legislate in admiralty and maritime matters has not been delegated to Congress. This, of course, is not true as the Federal Constitution provides otherwise.
For the reasons assigned, the judgment appealed from is affirmed.
Affirmed.