Cite as: 521 U. S. 121 (1997)
O’Connor, J., dissenting
the claimant's wage-earning capacity. The catch is that § 22 permits recognition of changed conditions only within one year of the denial of a claim or the last payment on an award.
The Court's mechanism for awarding nominal damages is designed solely to circumvent § 22's 1-year limit for reopening terminated or denied claims. The Court effectively recognizes as much, since it candidly admits that under its approach, "finality is exchanged for accuracy." Ante, at 133. That is, the 1-year limitations period established by § 22 is sacrificed in order to avoid the overcompensation and under-compensation that may result from a straightforward application of the LHWCA. Ibid. Congress has already evaluated these policy concerns, however, and has come down on the side of finality by enacting § 22. When a worker cannot demonstrate a reduction in his wage-earning capacity, in terms of his present or future ability to obtain gainful employment, § 22 gives that employee only one year to show that conditions have changed. To hold open a case simply because a "change in conditions" may someday arise certainly violates the spirit, if not the letter, of § 22.
The proper tradeoff between finality and accuracy is open to reasoned debate. Indeed, some state legislatures have agreed with the Court that when a worker does not immediately suffer as a result of his work-related injury, it is better to postpone compensation until his disability manifests itself. Accordingly, they have amended their workers' compensation statutes to allow precisely the sort of nominal-benefits mechanism that the Court approves today. See, e. g., Cal. Lab. Code Ann. § 5802 (West 1989) ("If, in any proceeding under this division, it is proved that an injury has been suffered . . . , but it is not proved that any disability has resulted, the appeals board may, instead of dismissing the application, award a nominal disability indemnity, if it appears that disability is likely to result at a future time"). But until Congress amends the LHWCA, I do not think that the Court's approach is open to us. I would therefore hold that
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