White v. United States (493 U.S. 5)/Dissent Stevens

Justice STEVENS, dissenting.

Workers' compensation is generally a subject of local interest and control with which federal courts have only minimal contact. The Texas Workers' Compensation Act is unusual because employers who carry workers' compensation insurance normally are not parties to the processing of claims that are made against their insurers. Moreover, when an award is made, either the employee or the insurance company may obtain de novo review in a judicial proceeding in which the employee bears the burden of proof regardless of which party requested review. In other words, in both the administrative proceeding and the judicial proceeding, the employee is the party who must assert and prove that his claim against a carrier is meritorious.

One of the consequences of the unique Texas program was the generation of an unusually large volume of federal litigation between Texas employees and out-of-state insurance companies. In 1957 the dockets of the United States District Courts in Texas were burdened with 2,147 Texas workers' compensation cases. Over half of them (1,148) were cases that had been originally filed in a Texas court and removed to a federal court. Of the remainder, 957 were original actions filed by employees and 25 were original actions filed by insurance carriers. The statute enacted by Congress in 1958, which prevents the removal of workers' compensation cases, eliminated a little over half of that burden but did not affect the actions originally filed in the federal district court by either employees or insurance carriers. See Horton v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 367 U.S. 348, 352, 81 S.Ct. 1570, 1573, 6 L.Ed.2d 890 (1961); see also ante, at 9.

In 1964, Congress passed another statute further curtailing federal diversity jurisdiction over claims against insurance carriers. As the Court correctly notes, ante, at 9-10, that statute was a response to the dramatic increase in the workload of the Federal District Courts in Louisiana resulting from the enactment of the Louisiana statute authorizing injured parties to bring direct actions against insurance companies without joining the alleged tortfeasors as parties. The legislative history of that statute does not mention workers' compensation cases. The question whether the 1964 statute ousted the federal courts in Texas of jurisdiction over the remaining half of their workers' compensation docket was, therefore, not answered by legislative history.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has, however, answered that question in two steps. In 1974, in Hernandez v. Travelers Ins. Co., 489 F.2d 721, cert. denied, 419 U.S. 844, 95 S.Ct. 78, 42 L.Ed.2d 73 (1974), the Court of Appeals held that a workers' compensation policy is a "policy or contract of liability insurance" and that an action against an insurer on such a policy is a "direct action" within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 1332(c) (1982 ed.). That holding took care of over 95 percent of the post-1958 residue of Texas workers' compensation cases. In 1977, the Fifth Circuit took the second step to dispose of the remaining handful of cases-those originally filed in federal court by insurance companies. In Campbell v. Insurance Co. of North America, 552 F.2d 604 (1977), the court held that the specific characteristics of the Texas workers' compensation statute made it appropriate to treat a federal action that had been filed by the insurance carrier as an action "against the insurer" within the meaning of the proviso to § 1332(c).

Today the Court rejects the second, relatively unimportant, holding in Campbell, and leaves standing the decision in Hernandez. The net result of this case, then, is to preserve federal jurisdiction over the tiny fraction of Texas workers' compensation cases that are brought by insurance carriers and to leave untouched the interpretation of the statute governing the other 971/2 percent. Since the Hernandez decision is consistent with the interpretation of the proviso to § 1332(c) that has been adopted in other Circuits, see Aetna Casualty & Surety Ins. Co. v. Greene, 606 F.2d 123, 126 (CA6 1979), and since the question whether the case involves a "direct action" and a "policy of liability insurance" turns in large part on an understanding of specific features of the Texas statute, I agree with the Court's decision to leave that holding untouched. I disagree, however, with its disposition of the issue it does decide.

On the merits, three characteristics of the Texas scheme make it appropriate to characterize the judicial review of a compensation award as an action "against" the insurance carrier regardless of which party initiated the review proceeding. First, the underlying claim for compensation that is at issue from beginning to end is unquestionably a claim against the insurance company. Second, the fact that as a matter of state law the burden of proof remains on the employee is of more importance in determining the true character of the judicial proceeding than the identity of the party who filed the initial pleading. Third, and perhaps of greatest importance, the question whether the matter in controversy is sufficient to sustain federal jurisdiction is determined by the magnitude of the employee's claim, rather than by the amount of the award that the insurance company challenges. Horton v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 367 U.S. 348, 81 S.Ct. 1570, 6 L.Ed.2d 890 (1961). Arguably, these three features of the Texas scheme are not sufficient to overcome the Court's literal approach to the art of statutory interpretation. They are, however, buttressed by three additional considerations that are persuasive to me. First, since the resolution of the issue depends largely on a correct understanding of a state statute, I believe we should give deference to the Court of Appeals' evaluation of the characteristics of the Texas procedures. Cf. Bishop v. Wood, 426 U.S. 341, 346, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 2078, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976). Second, that court's interpretation of the law provides evenhanded treatment to both parties, whereas the opinion this Court expresses today gives favored treatment to the insurance carriers; it seems unlikely that Congress intended the 1964 statute to have that kind of discriminatory impact. Third, the Court's construction of the provision ignores the dominant policy that should be heeded whenever we construe statutes governing federal diversity jurisdiction.

"These requirements, however technical seeming, must be     viewed in the perspective of the constitutional limitations      upon the judicial power of the federal courts, and of the      Judiciary Acts in defining the authority of the federal      courts when they sit, in effect, as state courts.  See      Madisonville Traction Co. v. Mining Co., 196 U.S. 239, 255      [25 S.Ct. 251, 255, 49 L.Ed. 462], and Ex parte      Schollenberger, 96 U.S. 369, 377 [24 L.Ed. 853].  The      dominant note in the successive enactments of Congress      relating to diversity jurisdiction, is one of jealous      restriction, of avoiding offense to state sensitiveness, and      of relieving the federal courts of the overwhelming burden of      'business that intrinsically belongs to the state courts,' in      order to keep them free for their distinctive federal      business.  See Friendly, The Historic Basis of Diversity      Jurisdiction, 41 Harv.L.Rev. 483, 510; Shamrock Oil Corp. v.      Sheets, 313 U.S. 100, 108-09 [61 S.Ct. 868, 872, 85 L.Ed. 1214]; Healy v. Ratta, 292 U.S. 263, 270 [54 S.Ct. 700, 703,     78 L.Ed. 1248]." Indianapolis v. Chase National Bank, 314      U.S. 63, 76 [62 S.Ct. 15, 20, 86 L.Ed. 47] (1941).

Finally, I must add a word about the unwisdom in granting certiorari to decide the merits of this case. The law had been settled in the Fifth Circuit in a perfectly sound and sensible way for over a decade when at least four Members of this Court voted to hear this case. Measured by 1957 standards, the question we decide today affects only 25 cases out of a total that then amounted to 2,147. Since the jurisdictional amount has since been increased from $3,000 to $50,000, the number of cases actually affected by today's decision may be even smaller. Thus, although it is true as the Court observes that Congress has the power to amend the statute to eliminate its disparate consequences, ante, at 12-13, it is hardly likely to consider such action worth the effort. The most significant aspect of today's decision is the revelatory light it sheds on the way we manage our scarce resources.

I respectfully dissent.