In the 1943 case Norton, Deputy Commissioner for the Third Compensation District v. Warner Company, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of Warner Company. The issue at hand was whether an employee's injury sustained during a lunch break on company premises fell under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA). The court held that such injuries did not fall within this act as they were not incurred "in the course of employment". This decision was based on their interpretation of what constituted 'employment', which according to them should be understood in terms of service or work done for an employer rather than mere presence at a particular location. Therefore, since eating lunch is considered personal business and not part of one’s job duties, any injuries occurring during this time would not be covered by LHWCA.

In the dissenting opinion for Norton, Deputy Commissioner for the Third Compensation District v. Warner Company, Justice Frank Murphy argued that the majority's interpretation of "injury" in Section 2(2) of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act was too narrow. He contended that it should include any harm or damage to a worker’s physical structure caused by an accident arising out of employment, regardless if there is immediate disability or not. In this case, he believed that Mr. Bichell suffered an injury when his hand was crushed at work even though he continued working after treatment because his ability to earn wages in future had been impaired due to reduced efficiency from pain and discomfort caused by such injury over time which eventually led him to stop working altogether later on.