Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis, 515 U.S. 347, 35 (1995)

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Cite as: 515 U. S. 347 (1995)

Stevens, J., concurring in judgment

LaCrosse Dredging Corp., 352 U. S. 370 (1957); Grimes v. Raymond Concrete Pile Co., 356 U. S. 252 (1958); Butler v. Whiteman, 356 U. S. 271 (1958). When the extent and consequence of the employee's exposure to the seaman's hazards is facially unclear, a test like the majority's may be appropriate. But no ambiguity exists when an employee is injured on the high seas. Unquestionably, that employee faces the perils associated with the voyage. Incontrovertibly, that employee is a "master or member of a crew of any vessel," within the meaning of the LHWCA, and hence a "seaman" under the Jones Act. Whatever treatment Congress intended for employees working in proximity to the shoreline, certainly it intended to extend Jones Act protection to the captain and crew of a ship on the high seas.

This conclusion is consistent with every Jones Act case that this Court has decided. Justice Cardozo's opinion for the Court in Warner v. Goltra, 293 U. S. 155 (1934), set a course that we have consistently followed. Explaining our holding that the master of a tugboat is a "seaman," he explained that "[i]t is enough that what he does affects 'the operation and welfare of the ship when she is upon a voyage.' " Id., at 157.5 Indeed, apart from the argument that a seaman must assist in performing the transportation function of the vessel—an argument finally put to rest in McDermott Int'l, Inc. v. Wilander, 498 U. S. 337 (1991)—I am not aware of a single Jones Act case decided by this Court, other

strate that the matter depends largely on the facts of the particular case and the activity in which he was engaged at the time of injury. . . . [T]here was no vessel engaged in navigation at the time of the decedent's death." Id., at 190-191.

5 The quotation is from a pre-Jones Act case, The Buena Ventura, 243 F. 797, 799 (SDNY 1916). Earlier in his opinion, Justice Cardozo had noted: "In the enforcement of the statute a policy of liberal construction announced at the beginning has been steadily maintained." Warner, 293 U. S., at 156.

381

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