He Died With A Longshore Claim Pending. His Family Spent Years Trying To Prove Who Could Collect

The TV lawyer on the billboard has never handled a longshore death case. He does not know who can bring a claim after a longshore worker dies. He does not know how the Longshore Act handles pending claims when the claimant dies before the case is resolved. He does not know the procedural rules that govern who can step into a dead man’s shoes in a federal administrative proceeding. He signs cases, hands them to a secretary, and moves on. And when the claimant dies in the middle of a pending claim, that lawyer has no idea what to do next. What happened in a real case decided by the Benefits Review Board should make every family of an injured longshore worker understand exactly how those cases get killed on procedure rather than the merits.

In Gonzalez v. Fenix Marine Services, Limited, decided by the U.S. Department of Labor Benefits Review Board, a longshore worker named Arthur Gonzalez filed two claims for benefits under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, one against his employer for an accepted injury, and a second for cumulative trauma. His formal hearing was scheduled. Then he died before it happened. His lawyer notified the court and asked for a remand to figure out who would carry the case forward. What followed was years of procedural fighting that resulted in the dismissal of both claims, not because Gonzalez had no case, but because nobody could prove who had the legal right to stand in his place.

Gonzalez had no will, no estate, and no spouse. His siblings wanted to pursue the claims on behalf of his estate. They went to the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board to get his sister appointed as his successor-in-interest. They got an order, but the order was vague about the legal basis. Then it came out, years into the proceedings, that Gonzalez had biological children who had been adopted out as infants. Under California law, those children may have superseded the siblings in the line of succession. The ALJ found the siblings had not proven their right to represent the estate, found that the lawyer had more than four years to investigate and had failed to track down the adopted-out son, and dismissed both claims. The Board vacated the dismissal and sent it back, but only to give the case one more chance to identify the right person to carry it. The claims had been in limbo for years at that point.

The Longshore Act And What Happens To A Claim When The Worker Dies

The Longshore Act has a rule that an accrued claim for benefits belongs to a deceased worker’s estate and can be pursued after death. That rule is clear. What is not simple is the procedural question of who, specifically, gets to pursue it, and how you prove that in federal court. The federal rules require that when a party to a proceeding dies, the estate has to substitute a proper representative within ninety days. Figuring out who qualifies as that representative requires applying state probate law, identifying the correct heirs, and dealing with any complications, like biological children who were adopted out and no longer have legal inheritance rights in some states but may in others.

None of that is simple. A lawyer who does not know this system well will not move fast enough, will not investigate the family tree thoroughly enough, and will not file the right documentation before the clock runs. The Gonzalez case was in the system for years and still nearly died on a question that had nothing to do with whether the man was injured or whether the employer was liable. It nearly died because nobody could prove who was entitled to the money.

What A Longshore Family Needs To Know Before It Is Too Late

If a longshore worker dies while a claim is pending, the window to protect that claim is short and the rules are technical. The employer and its carrier know those rules. They filed the motion to dismiss in the Gonzalez case the moment they spotted the procedural weakness. They were not wrong to do it. They were doing their job, which is to pay as little as possible, and a dismissal on procedural grounds pays nothing.

A lawyer who handles these cases knows the substitution requirements, knows how to read the state probate law that governs the succession question, and moves before the employer files the motion. A billboard lawyer who is handling his first longshore death case will not know any of it until the motion to dismiss is already on file and the clock has already run.

I am not going to hand the defense a guide to every procedural trap in a longshore death case. I put the information families need to understand how these claims work and what kills them in my free book. If you lost someone who was working on the water or as a contractor, read the book before you hire anyone.

You do not owe me anything to read it. No phone call. Just read it first.

If you lost a family member who was injured working on the water or as a contractor on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, you can read more about how I handle a Mississippi longshore case. Moss Point and Pascagoula families dealing with a longshore claim after a worker’s death can also read about how I handle a Moss Point longshore case specifically. The case discussed here is Gonzalez v. Fenix Marine Services, Limited, BRB No. 23-0140, decided by the U.S. Department of Labor Benefits Review Board. This article is commentary on a published administrative decision and general information, not legal advice about your situation.