§905 Exclusiveness of Liability

Summary

An employer’s workers’ compensation payments normally replace any other claims an injured worker or their family might make against that employer for a work injury or death. But if the employer does not get the required workers’ compensation coverage or pay as required, the injured worker (or the worker’s representative if the worker dies) can choose to take the compensation benefits or sue the employer for damages. In that lawsuit the employer cannot argue that a co-worker caused the injury, that the worker accepted the job’s risks, or that the worker was partly to blame. A contractor becomes responsible for a subcontractor’s workers only if the subcontractor failed to provide the required coverage. If a vessel’s negligence causes injury to someone covered by the rules, the injured person (or others who can sue) may bring a third-party claim against the vessel, and the employer cannot seek recovery from the vessel or rely on any contract that says otherwise. There are limits: people providing stevedoring services generally cannot sue the vessel for negligence by stevedoring personnel, and workers doing shipbuilding, repairing, or breaking who are employed by the vessel’s owner or operator cannot sue their own employer. Vessel liability under these rules is not based on a warranty of seaworthiness. The same ideas apply to people covered because of Outer Continental Shelf rules, and mutual agreements where employer and vessel agree to defend and pay each other’s losses can be enforced.