## Facts

- Brown-Pacific-Maxon, Inc., a U.S. government contractor on Guam, maintained an employee recreation center near the shoreline.
- A nearby channel was known to be extremely dangerous; the employer prohibited swimming there and posted warnings.
- Employee John Valak spent time at the recreation center and, while waiting for the employer’s bus, perceived men beyond the channel signaling for help.
- Valak entered the water to attempt a rescue and drowned while trying to cross the channel.
- Valak’s dependent mother sought death benefits under the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) as extended by the Defense Bases Act.
- The Deputy Commissioner found Valak’s participation in the employer-sponsored recreation was an incident of employment and that his death arose out of and in the course of employment, awarding weekly death benefits.

## Issues

1. Whether Valak’s drowning during a rescue attempt in prohibited, dangerous waters near an employer-provided recreation area on a remote defense base could be found to have arisen out of and in the course of employment under the LHWCA as extended by the Defense Bases Act.
2. Whether reviewing courts may set aside the Deputy Commissioner’s compensation order when the administrative finding is supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit and sustained the Deputy Commissioner’s award.
- The Court held the administrative finding of work-connection was supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole.
- The Court concluded that a rescue attempt in these circumstances is not categorically excluded from coverage and could reasonably be attributed to risks created by employment conditions.

## Legal Principles

- Under the Administrative Procedure Act, a compensation order supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole must be upheld; a court may not reweigh evidence or substitute its judgment for the agency’s permissible view of the facts.
- Under the LHWCA as extended by the Defense Bases Act, compensability does not require that the employee’s activity directly benefit the employer or be a task-specific risk of the job.
- An injury may arise out of and in the course of employment when the obligations or conditions of employment create a “zone of special danger” from which the injury results.
- In remote overseas employment settings, employer-provided living, transportation, and recreation conditions may make certain off-duty conduct (including reasonable rescue efforts) an incident of employment; only conduct so wholly unreasonable as to sever the employment connection defeats coverage.

## Conclusion

The Court upheld death benefits because the Deputy Commissioner could reasonably find that the overseas base environment and employer-sponsored recreation placed the employee in a zone of special danger, and the courts were required to defer to that finding where supported by substantial evidence on the whole record.


O’Leary v. Brown-Pac.-Maxon, Inc., 340 U.S. 504 (1951)