## Facts

- John Davis previously lost sight in his right eye in a non-work-related accident.
- While employed by Suwannee Fruit & Steamship Co., Davis suffered a work injury that caused loss of sight in his left eye, leaving him totally blind.
- The parties agreed Davis was totally disabled under the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) and that the employer was at least liable for compensation for the loss of the left eye as a permanent partial disability.
- The dispute concerned whether the employer or the LHWCA § 44 special fund must pay the additional compensation needed to reach permanent total disability when the work injury combines with a pre-existing disability.
- The Deputy Commissioner ruled the employer was liable for permanent total disability; the district court and Fifth Circuit ruled the employer owed only for the second injury and the special fund owed the balance.

## Issues

1. Whether LHWCA § 8(f)(1) limits the employer’s liability to the disability caused by the subsequent work injury when that injury combines with a prior, nonindustrial disability to produce permanent total disability.
2. Whether “previous disability” in § 8(f)(1) includes nonindustrial disabilities, requiring the special fund to pay the difference between partial and total disability.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed.
- The Court held that § 8(f)(1) makes the employer liable only for the permanent partial disability attributable to the subsequent injury (loss of the left eye).
- The Court held the § 44 special fund must pay the remainder of compensation needed to account for the resultant permanent total disability.
- The Court rejected the argument that “previous disability” is limited to industrial disabilities covered by the Act and declined to read an industrial/nonindustrial distinction into the statute.
- The Court rejected concerns that this interpretation would cause the special fund’s insolvency as insufficient to override the statute’s text and function.

## Legal Principles

- Under LHWCA § 8(f)(1), when a work injury that would independently cause only permanent partial disability combines with a prior disability to cause permanent total disability, the employer pays only for the disability from the subsequent injury and the special fund pays the balance.
- “Previous disability” in § 8(f)(1) includes pre-existing disabilities regardless of whether they arose from industrial or nonindustrial causes.
- The second-injury scheme is intended to reduce employer disincentives to hire workers with existing disabilities by allocating part of the combined-disability cost to the special fund.

## Conclusion

The Court interpreted LHWCA § 8(f)(1) to shift to the special fund the additional compensation attributable to a pre-existing disability, holding that an employer is responsible only for the later work-caused partial disability even when the earlier disability was nonindustrial and the combined condition results in permanent total disability.


Lawson v. Suwannee Fruit & Steamship Co., 336 U.S. 198 (1949)