Metropolitan Stevedore Company v. John Rambo et al. (521 U.S. 121)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 19, 1997 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 521 U.S. 121 · 117 S. Ct. 1953
- Decided
- June 19, 1997
- Term
- October Term 1996
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Souter
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court. This case under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act is before us a second time, now raising the question whether the Act bars nominal compensation to a worker who is presently able to earn at least as much as before he was injured. We hold nominal compensation proper when there is a significant possibility that the worker’s wage-earning capacity will fall below the level of his preinjury wages sometime in the future. I Respondent John Rambo injured his back and leg in 1980 while doing longshore work for petitioner Metropolitan Stevedore Company. Rambo claimed against Metropolitan for compensation under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA or Act), 44 Stat. 1424, as amended, 33 U. S. C. §901 et seq., and the parties stipulated that Rambo had sustained a 22/2% permanent partial disability, which would normally reflect a $120.24 decline in his pre-injury $534.38 weekly wage. This, in turn, was reduced to an award of $80.16 per week under §8(c)(21) of the Act, 33 U. S. C. § 908(c)(21), providing for compensation at the rate of 66%% of the difference between an employee’s preinjury wages and postinjury wage-earning capacity. An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) entered an order incorporating this stipulated award. App. 51; Metropolitan Stevedore Co. v. Rambo (Rambo I), 515 U. S. 291, 293 (1995).…
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