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O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon

U.S.
Feb 26, 1951
340 U.S. 504 (1951)

Summary

determining the correct principle of law, examining the record, and, because the record was not voluminous and the standard was not difficult to apply, deciding the issue without remand

Summary of this case from Bradley v. Pizzaco of Nebraska, Inc.

Opinion

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT.

No. 267.

Argued December 7, 1950. Decided February 26, 1951.

A contractor, engaged in construction work for the Navy on the Island of Guam, maintained for its employees a recreation center adjoining a channel so dangerous that swimming was forbidden and signs to that effect were erected. After spending the afternoon at the center, an employee was drowned while attempting to swim the channel in order to rescue two men in distress. Under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, extended to this employee by the Defense Bases Act, the Deputy Commissioner found as a "fact" that the employee's death arose out of and in the course of his employment and awarded a death benefit to his mother. Held: The award is sustained. Pp. 505-509.

1. Such a rescue attempt is not necessarily excluded from the coverage of the Act. Pp. 506-507.

2. Under the Administrative Procedure Act, the Deputy Commissioner's findings should be accepted unless they are unsupported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole. Universal Camera Corp. v. Labor Board, ante, p. 474. Pp. 507-508.

3. The evidence was sufficient to support the Deputy Commissioner's finding that the employee acted reasonably in attempting the rescue and that his death may fairly be attributed to the risks of his employment. Pp. 508-509.

182 F.2d 772, reversed.

The District Court declined to set aside an award under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act of March 4, 1927, 44 Stat. 1424, as amended, 33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq. The Court of Appeals reversed. 182 F.2d 772. This Court granted certiorari. 340 U.S. 849. Reversed, p. 509.

Morton Hollander argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Perlman, Acting Assistant Attorney General Clapp and Morton Liftin.

Edward S. Franklin argued the cause and filed a brief for respondents.


In this case we are called upon to review an award of compensation under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act. Act of March 4, 1927, 44 Stat. 1424, as amended, 33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq. The award was made on a claim arising from the accidental death of an employee of Brown-Pacific-Maxon, Inc., a government contractor operating on the island of Guam. Brown-Pacific maintained for its employees a recreation center near the shoreline, along which ran a channel so dangerous for swimmers that its use was forbidden and signs to that effect erected. John Valak, the employee, spent the afternoon at the center, and was waiting for his employer's bus to take him from the area when he saw or heard two men, standing on the reefs beyond the channel, signaling for help. Followed by nearly twenty others, he plunged in to effect a rescue. In attempting to swim the channel to reach the two men he was drowned.

A claim was filed by his dependent mother, based on the Longshoremen's Act and on an Act of August 16, 1941, extending the compensation provisions to certain employment in overseas possessions. 55 Stat. 622, 56 Stat. 1035, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1651. In due course of the statutory procedure, the Deputy Commissioner found as a "fact" that "at the time of his drowning and death the deceased was using the recreational facilities sponsored and made available by the employer for the use of its employees and such participation by the deceased was an incident of his employment, and that his drowning and death arose out of and in the course of said employment . . . ." Accordingly, he awarded a death benefit of $9.38 per week. Brown-Pacific and its insurance carrier thereupon petitioned the District Court under § 21 of the Act to set aside the award. That court denied the petition on the ground that "there is substantial evidence . . . to sustain the compensation order." On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed. It concluded that "The lethal currents were not a part of the recreational facilities supplied by the employer and the swimming in them for the rescue of the unknown man was not recreation. It was an act entirely disconnected from any use for which the recreational camp was provided and not in the course of Valak's employment." 182 F.2d 772, 773. We granted certiorari, 340 U.S. 849, because the case brought into question judicial review of awards under the Longshoremen's Act in light of the Administrative Procedure Act.

The Longshoremen's and Harbor Worker's Act authorizes payment of compensation for "accidental injury or death arising out of and in the course of employment." § 2(2), 44 Stat. 1425, 33 U.S.C. § 902 (2). As we read its opinion the Court of Appeals entertained the view that this standard precluded an award for injuries incurred in an attempt to rescue persons not known to be in the employer's service, undertaken in forbidden waters outside the employer's premises. We think this is too restricted an interpretation of the Act. Workmen's compensation is not confined by common-law conceptions of scope of employment. Cardillo v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 330 U.S. 469, 481; Matter of Waters v. Taylor Co., 218 N.Y. 248, 251, 112 N.E. 727, 728. The test of recovery is not a causal relation between the nature of employment of the injured person and the accident. Thom v. Sinclair, [1917] A. C. 127, 142. Nor is it necessary that the employee be engaged at the time of the injury in activity of benefit to his employer. All that is required is that the "obligations or conditions" of employment create the "zone of special danger" out of which the injury arose. Ibid. A reasonable rescue attempt, like pursuit in aid of an officer making an arrest, may be "one of the risks of the employment, an incident of the service, foreseeable, if not foreseen, and so covered by the statute." Matter of Babington v. Yellow Taxi Corp., 250 N.Y. 14, 17, 164 N.E. 726, 727; Puttkammer v. Industrial Comm'n, 371 Ill. 497, 21 N.E.2d 575. This is not to say that there are not cases "where an employee, even with the laudable purpose of helping another, might go so far from his employment and become so thoroughly disconnected from the service of his employer that it would be entirely unreasonable to say that injuries suffered by him arose out of and in the course of his employment." Matter of Waters v. Taylor Co., 218 N.Y. at 252, 112 N.E. at 728. We hold only that rescue attempts such as that before us are not necessarily excluded from the coverage of the Act as the kind of conduct that employees engage in as frolics of their own.

The Deputy Commissioner treated the question whether the particular rescue attempt described by the evidence was one of the class covered by the Act as a question of "fact." Doing so only serves to illustrate once more the variety of ascertainments covered by the blanket term "fact." Here of course it does not connote a simple, external, physical event as to which there is conflicting testimony. The conclusion concerns a combination of happenings and the inferences drawn from them. In part at least, the inferences presuppose applicable standards for assessing the simple, external facts. Yet the standards are not so severable from the experience of industry nor of such a nature as to be peculiarly appropriate for independent judicial ascertainment as "questions of law."

Both sides conceded that the scope of judicial review of such findings of fact is governed by the Administrative Procedure Act. Act of June 11, 1946, 60 Stat. 237, 5 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq. The standard, therefore, is that discussed in Universal Camera Corp. v. Labor Board, ante, p. 474. It is sufficiently described by saying that the findings are to be accepted unless they are unsupported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole. The District Court recognized this standard.

When this Court determines that a Court of Appeals has applied an incorrect principle of law, wise judicial administration normally counsels remand of the cause to the Court of Appeals with instructions to reconsider the record. Compare Universal Camera Corp. v. Labor Board, supra. In this instance, however, we have a slim record and the relevant standard is not difficult to apply; and we think the litigation had better terminate now. Accordingly we have ourselves examined the record to assess the sufficiency of the evidence.

We are satisfied that the record supports the Deputy Commissioner's finding. The pertinent evidence was presented by the written statements of four persons and the testimony of one witness. It is, on the whole, consistent and credible. From it the Deputy Commissioner could rationally infer that Valak acted reasonably in attempting the rescue, and that his death may fairly be attributable to the risks of the employment. We do not mean that the evidence compelled this inference; we do not suggest that had the Deputy Commissioner decided against the claimant, a court would have been justified in disturbing his conclusion. We hold only that on this record the decision of the District Court that the award should not be set aside should be sustained.

Reversed.


Liability accrues in the instant case only if the death arose out of and in the course of the employment. This is a statutory provision common to all Workmen's Compensation Acts. There must be more than death and the relationship of employee and employer. There must be some connection between the death and the employment. Not in any common-law sense of causal connection but in the common-sense, everyday, realistic view. The Deputy Commissioner knew that, so he found as a fact that "at the time of his drowning and death the deceased was using the recreational facilities sponsored and made available by the employer for the use of its employees and such participation by the deceased was an incident of his employment . . . ." This finding is false and has no scintilla of evidence or inference to support it.

I am unable to understand how this Court can say this is a fact based upon evidence. It is undisputed upon this record that the deceased, at the time he met his death, was outside the recreational area in the performance of a voluntary act of attempted rescue of someone unknown to the record. There can be no inference of liability here unless liability follows from the mere relationship of employer and employee. The attempt to rescue was an isolated, voluntary act of bravery of the deceased in no manner arising out of or in the course of his employment. The only relation his employment had with the attempted rescue and the following death was that his employment put him on the Island of Guam.

I suppose the way to avoid what we said today in Universal Camera Corp. v. Labor Board, ante, p. 474, is to find facts where there are no facts, on the whole record or any piece of it. It sounds a bit hollow to me for the Court, as it does, to quote from the New York case of Matter of Waters v. Taylor Co., 218 N.Y. 248, 252, 112 N.E. 727, 728, "where an employee, even with the laudable purpose of helping another, might go so far from his employment and become so thoroughly disconnected from the service of his employer that it would be entirely unreasonable to say that injuries suffered by him arose out of and in the course of his employment." This would seem to indicate that we are leaving some place for voluntary acts of the employees outside the course of their employment for which the employer may not be liable. There surely are such areas, but this case does not recognize them. The employer is liable in this case because he is an employer.

I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.


Summaries of

O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon

U.S.
Feb 26, 1951
340 U.S. 504 (1951)

determining the correct principle of law, examining the record, and, because the record was not voluminous and the standard was not difficult to apply, deciding the issue without remand

Summary of this case from Bradley v. Pizzaco of Nebraska, Inc.

In O'Leary, the Supreme Court created the zone of special danger test to determine whether an injury arises out of and in the course of employment. 340 U.S. at 506–07, 71 S.Ct. 470. The Court explained that a causal relationship between the nature of the claimant's employment and his injury is not necessary; instead, "[a]ll that is required is that the obligations or conditions of employment create the zone of special danger out of which the injury arose."

Summary of this case from Chugach Mgmt. Servs. v. Jetnil

In O'Leary, the claimant was working in Guam when he jumped into a dangerous river channel that abutted his employer's recreational center in an attempt to rescue a man stuck in the channel.

Summary of this case from Chugach Mgmt. Servs. v. Jetnil

In O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, 340 U.S. 504, 506, 71 S.Ct. 470, 95 L.Ed. 483 (1951), the Court analyzed the language of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (into which the Defense Base Act was incorporated), which authorizes payment of compensation for "accidental injury or death arising out of and in the course of employment".

Summary of this case from Jones v. Halliburton Co.

In O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, 340 U.S. 504, 506, 71 S.Ct. 470, 95 L.Ed. 483 (1951), the Supreme Court noted that worker's compensation was "not confined by common-law conceptions of scope of employment."

Summary of this case from Jones v. Halliburton Co.

In O'Leary, an employee working in Guam spent an afternoon at his employer's recreational center, which was adjacent to a dangerous river channel in which swimming was prohibited.

Summary of this case from Kalama v. Dir., Off. of Wkrs. Comp. Programs

In O'Leary, the death of a construction worker who reasonably attempted to rescue two drowning men (not co-employees) in a channel running in front of his employer's recreation facility, but off the employer's premises, was found to be compensable under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 901-950 (1978) (amended 1972).

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In O'Leary, unlike our case, there had been a full opportunity for the fact finding body to create a complete record and make findings of fact.

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In O'Leary, the court was faced with the question whether an employee who was covered by the Longshoreman's and Harbor Worker's Compensation Act and who drowned while attempting a rescue in a swimming area maintained by his employer was to be compensated.

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In O'Leary, the Court found coverage under the Act when an employee drowned while attempting to rescue someone by swimming through a dangerous channel which was marked as forbidden for swimming.

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Summary of this case from Pittston Stevedoring Corp. v. Dellaventura

In O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, 340 U.S. 504, 506-07 (1951) the Court held that the employee need only establish that the "obligation or conditions of employment create the zone of special danger out of which the injury arose."

Summary of this case from Latimer v. Chet Morrison Contractors

In O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, 340 U.S. 504 (1951), the Court held that the LHWCA provided coverage to a claimant that drowned while attempting to rescue a person outside a company-owned recreation facility.

Summary of this case from James v. Wards Cove Packing Co.

In O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, Inc., 340 U.S. 504, 71 S.Ct. 470, it was conceded by both parties that the scope of review is now controlled by the Administrative Procedure Act of June 11, 1946, 60 Stat. 237, 5 U.S.C.A. § 1001 et seq.

Summary of this case from Hudnell v. O'Hearne

In O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, 340 U.S. 504, 71 S. Ct. 470, 95 L. Ed. 483 (1951), however, the United States Supreme Court applied a more relaxed causation standard in an action for compensation arising under the Defense Bases Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1651 et seq., which incorporates the provisions of the Longshore Act.

Summary of this case from Birnie v. Electric Boat Corp.

In O'Leary, the Supreme Court concluded that, in actions for compensation under the Defense Bases Act, "[t]he test of recovery is not a causal relation between the nature of employment of the injured person and the accident."

Summary of this case from Birnie v. Electric Boat Corp.

In O'Leary, the court emphasized that the commissioner's conclusions that the claimant had acted reasonably in attempting the rescue and that his death fairly may be attributable to the risks of the employment were based on permissible, but not compelled, inferences from the evidence.

Summary of this case from Blakeslee v. Platt Bros. Co.

In O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, Inc., 340 U.S. 504, 71 S.Ct. 470, 95 L.Ed. 483 (1951), the claimant's decedent, an employee of a government contractor, while waiting for his employer's bus, saw two strangers off the coastline signaling for help. Disregarding signs forbidding swimming in the hazardous waters, he plunged into the channel and drowned in his rescue effort.

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In O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, Inc., 340 U.S. 504 (1951), the decedent, an employee of a government contractor on Guam, had drowned while trying to rescue two men from a channel which ran alongside a recreation center the employer maintained for its employees.

Summary of this case from D'Angeli's Case

applying deferential standard of review to finding that injury arose out of and in course of employment

Summary of this case from Jayo v. Industrial Commission

In O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, Inc. (1951), 340 U.S. 504, 71 S.Ct. 470, 95 L.Ed. 483, an employee of Brown-Pacific-Maxon, Inc. drowned while attempting to swim a channel in an effort to lend assistance to two troubled swimmers.

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Case details for

O'Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon

Case Details

Full title:O'LEARY, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, FOURTEENTH COMPENSATION DISTRICT, v …

Court:U.S.

Date published: Feb 26, 1951

Citations

340 U.S. 504 (1951)
71 S. Ct. 470

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