Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/247

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

89

Opinion of the Court

elsewhere, that Congress has excluded from Jones Act remedies those traditional seamen who owe allegiance to a vessel at sea, but who do not aid in navigation.” 498 U. S., at 354. While in some cases a ship repairman may lack the requisite connection to a vessel in navigation to qualify for seaman status, see, e. g., Sun Ship, Inc. v. Pennsylvania, 447 U. S. 715 (1980) (ship repairmen working and injured on land); P. C. Pfeiffer Co. v. Ford, 444 U. S. 69, 80, and n. 12 (1979), not all ship repairmen lack the requisite connection as a matter of law.4 This is so because “[i]t is not the employee’s particular job that is determinative, but the employee’s connection to a vessel.” Wilander, supra, at 354. By its terms the LHWCA preserves the Jones Act remedy for vessel crewmen, even if they are employed by a shipyard. A maritime worker is limited to LHWCA remedies only if no genuine issue of fact exists as to whether the worker was a seaman under the Jones Act. Southwest Marine submits several arguments in an attempt to foreclose this Jones Act suit. First, Southwest Marine contends that our decision in Wilander will conflict with decisions holding that the LHWCA provides the exclusive remedy for certain injured railroad workers otherwise permitted by the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, 45 U. S. C. § 51 et seq., to pursue a negligence cause of action. See, e. g., Chesapeake & Ohio R. Co. v. Schwalb, 493 U. S. 40 (1989); Pennsylvania R. Co. v. O’Rourke, 344 U. S. 334 (1953). Such cases, however, can provide no meaningful guidance on 4 Gizoni stipulates that he was a ship repairman for Southwest Marine and correctly notes that many ship repairmen are excluded from LHWCA coverage, even though ship repairmen are expressly enumerated as a category of “harborworker” included within its coverage. See 33 U. S. C. § 902(3)(F) (individuals employed to repair recreational vessels under 65 feet in length); § 902(3)(H) (persons engaged to repair small vessels under 18 tons net). We find it significant that such clear exclusions of certain ship repairmen fall on either side of the exclusion here at issue for “a master or member of a crew of any vessel.” § 902(3)(G).