Charles Evans Hughes

“ Yet as to the issue of employment the Court holds, not only that such findings may not be declared final, but that it would create a serious constitutional doubt to construe the act as committing to the deputy commissioner the simple function of collecting the evidence upon which the court will ultimately decide the issue.
It is suggested that this exception is required as to issues of fact involving claims of constitutional right. For reasons which I shall later discuss, I cannot believe that the issue of employment is one of constitutional right. ”

“ Not only is navigability itself a question of fact, as waters that are navigable in fact are navigable in law, [21] but, where navigability is not in dispute, the locality of the injury, that is, whether it has occurred upon the navigable waters of the United States, determines the existence of the congressional power to create the liability prescribed by the statute. [22] Again, it cannot be maintained that the Congress has any general authority to amend the maritime law so as to establish liability without fault in maritime cases, regardless of particular circumstances or relations. ”

“ The statute has a limited application, being confined to the relation of master and servant, and the method of determining the questions of fact, which arise in the routine of making compensation awards to employees under the act, is necessary to its effective enforcement. The act itself, where it applies, establishes the measure of the employer's liability, thus leaving open for determination the questions of fact as to the circumstances, nature, extent, and consequences of the injuries sustained by the employee for which compensation is to be made in accordance with the prescribed standards. ”

“ When the validity of an act of the Congress is drawn in question, and even if a serious doubt of constitutionality is raised, it is a cardinal principle that this Court will first ascertain whether a construction of the statute is fairly possible by which the question may be avoided. ”

“ The existence of a relation of employment is a question going to the applicability of the substantive law, not to the jurisdiction of the tribunal. Jurisdiction is the power to adjudicate between the parties concerning the subject-matter. Compare Reynolds v. Stockton, 140 U.S. 254, 268, 11 S.C.t. 773, 35 L. Ed. 464. Obviously, the deputy commissioner had not only the power but the duty to determine whether the employer employee relation existed. ”

“ That would be to sap the judicial power as it exists under the federal Constitution, and to establish a government of a bureaucratic character alien to our system, wherever fundamental rights depend, as not infrequently they do depend, upon the facts, and finality as to facts becomes in effect finality in law. ”

“ In defining substantive rights, the act provides for recovery in the absence of fault, classifies disabilities resulting from injuries, fixes the range of compensation in case of disability or death, and designates the classes of beneficiaries. In view of federal power to alter and revise the maritime law, there appears to be no room for objection on constitutional grounds to the creation of these rights, unless it can be found in the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. ”

“ Findings of fact by the deputy commissioner upon such questions are closely analogous to the findings of the amount of damages that are made according to familiar practice by commissioners or assessors, and the reservation of full authority to the court to deal with matters of law provides for the appropriate exercise of the judicial function in this class of cases. ”

“ The jurisdiction of those courts is subject to the control of Congress. [53] Matters which may be placed within their jurisdiction may instead be committed to the state courts. If there be any controversy to which the judicial power extends that may not be subjected to the conclusive determination of administrative bodies or federal legislative courts, it is not because of any prohibition against the diminution of the jurisdiction of the federal District Courts as such, but because, under certain circumstances, the constitutional requirement of due process is a requirement of judicial process. ”

“ And while the practice of obtaining the assistance of masters in chancery and commissioners in admiralty may be regarded, as we have pointed out, as furnishing a certain analogy in relation to the normal authority of the deputy commissioner in making what is virtually an assessment of damages, the proceedings of such masters and commissioners are always subject to the direction of the court, and their reports are essentially advisory, a distinction of controlling importance when questions of a fundamental character are in issue. ”

“ It is not to be assumed that Congress, having power to amend and revise the maritime law, is prevented from modifying those criteria and enlarging the liability imposed by this act so as to embrace all persons who are engaged or engage themselves in the work of another, including those now designated as independent contractors. ”

“ The recognition of the utility and convenience of administrative agencies for the investigation and finding of facts within their proper province, and the support of their authorized action, does not require the conclusion that there is no limitation of their use, and that the Congress could completely oust the courts of all determinations of fact by vesting the authority to make them with finality in its own instrumentalities or in the executive department. ”

“ The finality of such determinations of the deputy commissioner is predicated primarily upon the provision (section 19 (a) , 33 USCA § 919 (a) that he 'shall have full power and authority to hear and determine all questions in respect of such claim.' But 'such claim' is the claim for compensation under the act and by its explicit provisions is that of an 'employee,' as defined in the act, against his 'employer.' The fact of employment is an essential condition precedent to the right to make the claim. ”

“ In cases brought to enforce constitutional rights, the judicial power of the United States necessarily extends to the independent determination of all questions, both of fact and law, necessary to the performance of that supreme function. The case of confiscation is illustrative, the ultimate conclusion almost invariably depending upon the decisions of questions of fact. This court has held the owner to be entitled to 'a fair opportunity for submitting that issue to a judicial tribunal for determination upon its own independent judgment as to both law and facts.' Ohio Valley Water Company v. ”

“ It has never been decided that the power of Congress to provide compensation for injuries to workmen received in the course of maritime employment depends upon the injury having occurred upon navigable waters. ”

“ Within ten days after the claim is filed, the deputy commissioner, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Commission, must notify the employer and any other person who is considered by the deputy commissioner to be an interested party. The deputy commissioner is required to make, or cause to be made, such investigations as he deems to be necessary, and upon application of any interested party must order a hearing, upon notice, at which the claimant and the employer may present evidence. Employees claiming compensation must submit to medical examination. ”

“ E. F. Albertsworth, 'Judicial Review of Administrative Action by the Federal Supreme Court,' 35 Harv. L. Rev. 127, 152, 153. In most states, the tendency appears to be to deny the right, in a tort action against an administrative officer, to question the existence of the fact justifying his act, if a hearing was provided or if a suit for injunction could have been brought. See Freund, 'Administrative Powers Over Persons and Property,' pp. ”

“ That there is a difference in kind, for example, between the defense that the injured claimant is not an employee, and that he was not acting as an employee when he was injured, or that there is a difference between the latter defense and the defense that the disability, if any, from which he suffers resulted only in part, or not at all, from the employment in which he claims to have suffered it, are propositions which employers will be unlikely to accept until they have submitted them to the decision of the courts. ”

“ And, to remove the question as to validity, we think that the statute should be so construed. Further, the act expressly requires that, if any of its provisions is found to be unconstitutional, 'or the applicability thereof to any person or circumstances' is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of the act and 'the applicability of such provision to other persons and circumstances' shall not be affected. ”

“ A state may distribute its powers as it sees fit, provided only that it acts consistently with the essential demands of due process and does not transgress those restrictions of the Federal Constitution which are applicable to state authority. ”

“ The fact that litigation under the Longshoremen's Act is, in substance, between private parties (even though under section 21 (b) the deputy commissioner is the only necessary party respondent) does not warrant the inference that the administrative features of the act present a question not heretofore decided. The tribunals in note 36, supra, listed deal with matters outside the scope of the doctrine recently examined in Ex parte Bakelite Corporation, 279 U.S. 438, 49 S.C.t. ”

“ Paley, 'The Law of Principal and Agent.'↑ See the digests of the statutes in L. V. Hill and Ralph H. Wilkin, 'Workmen's Compensation Statute Law'; and F. Robertson Jones, 'Digest of Workmen's Compensation Laws' (10th Ed.) . The provision in the New York Workmen's Compensation Act (Consol. Laws, c. 67) , § 56, is illustrative: 'A contractor, the subject of whose contract is, involves or includes a hazardous employment, who subcontracts all or any part of such contract shall be liable for and shall pay compensation to any employee injured. ”

“ In cases of equity and admiralty, it is historic practice to call to the assistance of the courts, without the consent of the parties, masters, and commissioners or assessors, to pass upon certain classes of questions, as, for example, to take and state an account or to find the amount of damages. ”

“ State Workmen's Compensation Laws almost invariably contain provisions for liability either to independent contractors or to their employees, sometimes absolute and sometimes conditioned upon default by the immediate employer ”

“ It cannot be regarded as an impairment of the intended efficiency of an administrative agency that it is confined to its proper sphere, but it may be observed that the instances which permit of a challenge to the application of the statute, upon the grounds we have stated, appear to be few. ”