Overview
The United States Longshore & Harbor Workers’ Compensation (USL&H) is a federal act, sometimes referred to as the Longshore Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA), designed to provide compensation to an employee if an injury or death occurs upon navigable waters of the United States, including any adjoining pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal, building-way, marine railway or other adjoining area customarily used by an employer in loading, unloading, repairing, dismantling or building a vessel. Coverage is determined under the USL&H dependent upon the location where the employee was working, and dependent upon whether or not the type of work performed had a traditional relationship to maritime employment. The Act provides that an employer who fails to satisfy the insurance requirement must be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by both. Also, where the employer is a corporation, the President, Secretary and Treasurer must be separately personally liable to such fine and imprisonment, and also liable, jointly and severally with such corporation, for any compensation or other benefit that may accrue under the Act.