Willard Stewart v. Dutra Construction Company (543 U.S. 481)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 22, 2005 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 543 U.S. 481 · 125 S. Ct. 1118
- Decided
- February 22, 2005
- Term
- October Term 2004
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. The question in this case is whether a dredge is a “vessel” under § 2(3)(G) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA), 44 Stat., pt. 2, p. 1425, as added by § 2(a) of Pub. L. 98-426, 33 U. S. C. § 902(3)(G). We hold that it is. I As part of Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Project, or “Big Dig,” the Commonwealth of Massachusetts undertook to extend the Massachusetts Turnpike through a tunnel running beneath South Boston and Boston Harbor to Logan Airport. The Commonwealth employed respondent Dutra Construction Company to assist in that undertaking. At the time, Dutra owned the world’s largest dredge, the Super Scoop, which was capable of digging the 50-foot-deep, 100-foot-wide, three-quarter-mile-long trench beneath Boston Harbor that is now the Ted Williams Tunnel. The Super Scoop is a massive floating platform from which a clamshell bucket is suspended beneath the water. The bucket removes silt from the ocean floor and dumps the sediment onto one of two scows that float alongside the dredge. The Super Scoop has certain characteristics common to seagoing vessels, such as a captain and crew, navigational lights, ballast tanks, and a crew dining area. But it lacks others. Most conspicuously, the Super Scoop has only limited means of self-propulsion. It is moved long distances by tugboat. (To work on the Big…
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