Ingalls Shipbuilding, Inc. v. Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, 519 U.S. 248, 6 (1997)

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Cite as: 519 U. S. 248 (1997)

Opinion of the Court

when she entered into the settlement agreements. App. to Pet. for Cert. A-67. Reasoning that the prerequisites for the recovery of death benefits could not be established prior to the worker's death, he found that the "spouse of an injured employee has no cause of action [under the Act] until the injured employee dies from his work-related injury." Id., at A-68. Because Mrs. Yates had no cause of action for death benefits prior to her husband's death, the ALJ concluded that she was not a "person entitled to compensation" obligated to seek the employer's approval of any settlements signed at that time.

Ingalls appealed to the Benefits Review Board. Yates v. Ingalls Shipbuilding, Inc., 28 BRBS 137 (1994). The Director, OWCP, appeared as a respondent in support of Mrs. Yates. The Board affirmed, largely in reliance upon our decision in Estate of Cowart v. Nicklos Drilling Co., 505 U. S. 469 (1992), in which we held that an injured worker was a "person entitled to compensation" for the purpose of disability benefits under § 8 of the Act at "the moment his right to recovery vested," id., at 477, which in that case was when the worker suffered his permanent injury. The Board reasoned that Cowart's "vesting" rationale applied to death as well as disability benefits, and observed that Mrs. Yates' "right to death benefits under the Act could not have vested before she became a widow." App. to Pet. for Cert. A-35 (emphasis in original). Although it might appear at the time of settlement that Mrs. Yates would likely become a "person entitled to compensation" under the Act, before her husband's death any one of several events might occur that would prevent her from recovering any death benefits under the Act—she might predecease her husband, she might divorce her husband, or her husband might die from causes independent of his work-related injury. For these reasons, the Board held that Mrs. Yates was not a "person entitled to compensation" at the time she entered into the predeath settlements, but acknowledged that its ruling was at odds

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