## Facts

- Willie B. Jones, a 63-year-old unskilled laborer, worked as a roofer’s helper for Rose Brothers Company.
- In 1951, Jones twice fractured his right arm at work, leaving him with only minimal use of his right hand, able to lift less than seven pounds and barely write.
- A physician estimated a 35–45% hand disability and suggested Jones could function in “suitable employment.”
- A psychologist found Jones had an IQ of 69 (“borderline defective”) and could not perform jobs requiring even minimal ability.
- Jones’s work history was manual labor; after the injury he registered with the U.S. Employment Service and sought work for about five years without success.
- The employer and its carrier paid the statutory maximum for a scheduled hand injury under LHWCA § 8(c) ($11,000) for permanent partial disability.
- A Deputy Commissioner found Jones’s disability was confined to the arm and denied additional compensation; the district court granted summary judgment directing an award of permanent total disability.

## Issues

1. Whether substantial evidence supported the Deputy Commissioner’s finding that Jones was not permanently and totally disabled under the LHWCA.
2. Whether the LHWCA’s § 8(c) schedule for loss of use of a hand bars an award for permanent total disability based on the same injury.
3. Whether Jones’s preexisting limited intelligence qualified as a “previous disability” under § 8(f), triggering Special Fund liability for part of the compensation.

## Decision

- The D.C. Circuit held the record compelled a finding of permanent total disability because Jones, given his physical limitations and mental capacity, could not realistically obtain and hold suitable employment.
- The court held a scheduled award under § 8(c) does not preclude permanent total disability benefits when the injury’s actual effect on wage-earning capacity is total.
- The court held Jones’s limited intelligence was a qualifying “previous disability” under § 8(f), so liability beyond the portion attributable to the hand injury must be paid from the Special Fund.
- The court affirmed the judgment requiring a permanent total disability award and remanded for allocation of liability under § 8(f).

## Legal Principles

- Disability under the LHWCA is measured by loss of wage-earning capacity in the open labor market, not solely by medical impairment.
- Total disability does not require absolute inability to work; the test is whether the claimant can realistically obtain and hold suitable employment in the injured condition.
- In determining disability, the factfinder must consider the claimant’s age, education, work history, and mental capacity alongside the physical injury.
- A § 8(c) scheduled award is not exclusive when the scheduled injury, in context, results in permanent total disability.
- For § 8(f), a “previous disability” need not arise from an industrial accident; a serious, lasting preexisting condition that materially combines with the work injury can shift part of liability to the Special Fund.

## Conclusion

The court treated disability under the LHWCA as an economic inquiry, holding that a scheduled hand injury can support permanent total disability when the claimant’s individual limitations make employment unrealistic, and that preexisting low intelligence can qualify as a § 8(f) prior disability requiring partial payment from the Special Fund.


Am. Mut. Ins. Co. of Bos. v. Jones, 426 F.2d 1263 (D.C. Cir. 1970)