## Facts

- Maher Terminals, Inc. operated a marine terminal at the Port of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and employed Vincent Riggio.
- Riggio was on Maher’s “permanent hire list” and belonged to the local checkers’ union; he could be assigned day-to-day as either a checker or a delivery clerk.
- As a checker, Riggio performed cargo-checking and related dockside functions that all parties agreed constituted covered maritime employment under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA).
- As a delivery clerk, Riggio performed office-based paperwork and interactions with truck drivers related to cargo delivery; Maher treated this work as noncovered.
- The parties stipulated Riggio spent approximately half his time as a checker and half as a delivery clerk.
- On February 3, 1994, while working as a delivery clerk at Berth 62, Riggio fell off a chair and injured his left arm.
- Riggio sought LHWCA benefits; situs was undisputed, and the dispute concerned whether he satisfied the Act’s status requirement.

## Issues

1. Whether a worker who regularly performs both covered longshoring duties and noncovered duties is a covered “maritime employee” under the LHWCA when injured while performing noncovered work.
2. Whether LHWCA “status” is determined by the worker’s activity at the moment (or day) of injury or by the worker’s regular overall duties.

## Decision

- The Third Circuit denied Maher’s petition for review and affirmed the Benefits Review Board’s decision awarding benefits.
- The court held Riggio satisfied the LHWCA status requirement because his regular duties included substantial, recurring longshoring work.
- The court rejected Maher’s attempt to limit status to the noncovered task being performed at the time (or day) of injury.
- The court treated the Board’s regular-duties approach as consistent with Supreme Court precedent and the LHWCA’s purpose of avoiding arbitrary gaps in coverage for mixed-duty workers.

## Legal Principles

- LHWCA status is assessed based on an employee’s regular duties and overall employment relationship to maritime activity, not solely the task being performed at the time of injury.
- A worker meets the “maritime employment” requirement if the job requires the worker to spend at least some regular portion of time in indisputably longshoring operations, even if injured while performing noncovered work.
- A day-of-injury or moment-of-injury test that shifts workers in and out of coverage based on task assignment is inconsistent with the Act’s remedial design and governing precedent.

## Conclusion

Because Riggio regularly performed covered longshoring work as a checker (approximately half his work time) for the same employer and at a covered situs, he qualified as a covered maritime employee under the LHWCA despite being injured while performing noncovered delivery-clerk duties.


Maher Terminals, Inc. v. Dir., Off. of Workers’ Comp. Programs, 330 F.3d 162 (3d Cir. 2003)