Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/246

 502us1$$8Z 08-21-96 15:22:32 PAGES OPINPGT

88

SOUTHWEST MARINE, INC. v. GIZONI Opinion of the Court

than as a pure question of fact. Id., at 356. Even so, “[t]he inquiry into seaman status is of necessity fact-specific; it will depend on the nature of the vessel, and the employee’s precise relation to it.” Ibid. Our decision in Wilander jettisoned any lingering notion that a maritime worker need aid in the navigation of a vessel in order to qualify as a “seaman” under the Jones Act. “The key to seaman status is employment-related connection to a vessel in navigation. . . . It is not necessary that a seaman aid in navigation or contribute to the transportation of the vessel, but a seaman must be doing the ship’s work.” Id., at 355. In arriving at this conclusion, we again recognized that “the Jones Act and the LHWCA are mutually exclusive,” id., at 347 (citing Swanson v. Marra Brothers, Inc., 328 U. S. 1 (1946)), for the very reason that the LHWCA specifically precludes from its provisions any employee who is “a master or member of a crew of any vessel.” Southwest Marine suggests, in line with Fifth Circuit precedent, that this fact-intensive inquiry may always be resolved as a matter of law if the claimant’s job fits within one of the enumerated occupations defining the term “employee” covered by the LHWCA. However, this argument ignores the fact that some maritime workers may be Jones Act seamen performing a job specifically enumerated under the LHWCA. Indeed, Congress foresaw this possibility, and we have previously quoted a portion of the legislative history to the 1972 amendments to the LHWCA that states: “ ‘[T]he bill would amend the Act to provide coverage of longshoremen, harbor workers, ship repairmen, ship builders, shipbreakers, and other employees engaged in maritime employment (excluding masters and members of the crew of a vessel).’ ” Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, 432 U. S. 249, 266, n. 26 (1977) (quoting S. Rep. No. 92–1125, p. 13 (1972)) (emphasis added). As we observed in Wilander: “There is no indication in the Jones Act, the LHWCA, or