Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/243

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Cite as: 502 U. S. 81 (1991)

85

Opinion of the Court

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the determination that Gizoni was not a seaman as a matter of law, 909 F. 2d 385, 387 (1990), holding that questions of fact existed as to seaman status, e. g., whether the floating platforms were vessels in navigation, whether Gizoni’s relationship to those platforms was permanent, and whether he aided in their navigation. Id., at 388. The Ninth Circuit also reversed the District Court’s determination that the exclusive remedy provisions of the LHWCA precluded Gizoni from pursuing his Jones Act claim. The court concluded that the LHWCA by its terms does not cover “a master or member of a crew of any vessel,” 33 U. S. C. § 902(3)(G), that this phrase is the equivalent of “seaman” under the Jones Act, and that the question of his seaman status should have been presented to a jury. 909 F. 2d, at 389. The Ninth Circuit thus rejected the notion that any employee whose work involved ship repair was necessarily restricted to remedy under the LHWCA, reasoning that coverage under the Jones Act or the LHWCA depended not on the claimant’s job title, but on the nature of the claimant’s work and the intent of Congress in enacting these statutes. Ibid. We granted certiorari, 498 U. S. 1119 (1991), to resolve the conflict among the Circuits on this issue.1 We now affirm the judgment of the Ninth Circuit. 1 The Ninth Circuit in this case followed a decision by the Sixth Circuit, which held that “[a] plaintiff is not limited to the remedies available under the LHWCA unless he is unable to show that a genuine factual issue exists as to whether he was a seaman at the time of his injury.” Petersen v. Chesapeake & Ohio R. Co., 784 F. 2d 732, 739 (1986). To the contrary, the Fifth Circuit has previously held that “because longshoremen, shipbuilders and ship repairers are engaged in occupations enumerated in the LHWCA, they are unqualifiedly covered by that Act if they meet the Act’s situs requirements; coverage of these workmen by the LHWCA renders them ineligible for consideration as seamen or members of the crew of a vessel entitled to claim the benefits of the Jones Act.” Pizzitolo v. Electro-Coal Transfer Corp., 812 F. 2d 977, 983 (1987). A later decision