Eleventh Circuit Holds That A Non-Dependent Parent Of A Non-Seaman May Not Recover Non-Pecuniary Damages In A Suit Brought Under The General Maritime Law
September, 2003
In Tucker v. Fearn, 2003 AMC 1705 (11th Cir. 2003), the Eleventh Circuit followed a long line of maritime cases and held that a non-dependent parent of a non-seaman may not recover non-pecuniary damages in a wrongful death action brought under general maritime law.
Facts
Plaintiff’s minor son was killed when the 19-foot power boat he was traveling on collided with the defendant’s 36-foot sailboat in Alabama’s territorial waters. Plaintiff’s claim, brought under general maritime law, sought non-pecuniary damages for loss of society. Plaintiff also brought claims under Alabama’s wrongful death statute.
The district court dismissed the maritime-law claim for non-pecuniary damages, limiting recovery under general maritime law to pecuniary damages. The district court then certified for immediate appeal the question of whether a non-dependent parent may recover under general maritime law any non-pecuniary damages for the loss of his non-seaman son.
Analysis
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed, following a long line of cases holding that non-pecuniary damages are not available for claims brought under general maritime law.
The court analyzed the line of cases leading up to its decision. In Moragne v. State Marine Lines, Inc., 398 U.S. 375 (1970), the Supreme Court first recognized a wrongful death action under general maritime law. Prior to Moragne, Congress used the Death on the High Seas Act (“DOHSA”), to create a wrongful death action, but only for persons killed on the high seas. Under the Jones Act, employers became liable for negligence leading to the injury or death of a seamen. But because actions arising from accidents in a state’s territorial waters could be brought under that state’s wrongful death statute, the Court sought to “eliminate those inconsistencies and render maritime wrongful death law uniform” by creating a wrongful-death action that would be applicable even in state territorial waters.
In Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham, 436 U.S. 618 (1978), the Court interpreted DOHSA as limiting recovery to pecuniary losses only, and held that non-pecuniary losses are not available under DOHSA.
In Miles v. Apex Marine Corp., 498 U.S. 19 (1990), the Court held, consistent with its holding in Moragne, that there could be no recovery of non-pecuniary damages in an action under general maritime law for the wrongful death of a Jones Act seamen.
Applying the rule of law in Moragne, Higginbotham, and Miles to the facts before it, the Eleventh Circuit held that non-dependent survivors of non-seamen may not recover non-pecuniary damages in an action brought under general maritime law. In the court’s opinion, “[a] strange anomaly would result if [it] were to permit the survivors of nonseamen the right to recover loss of society damages while the survivors of seamen—the traditional wards of admiralty law—are barred from such recovery under the Jones Act and general maritime law.”
The Eleventh Circuit maintained that its holding did not conflict with the Supreme Court’s holding in Sea-Land Services, Inc. v. Gaudet, 414 U.S. 573 (1974), where the dependent widow of a longshoreman was permitted to recover non-pecuniary damages in an action brought under general maritime law. That case, the court said, has been limited to its facts—a dependent survivor recovering non-pecuniary damages for the wrongful death of a longshoreman in a state’s territorial waters.
The Eleventh Circuit also felt that its decision did not conflict with the Supreme Court’s holding in Yamaha Motor Corp. v. Calhoun, 516 U.S. 199 (1996), where the Court permitted non-dependent surviving parents to recover non-pecuniary damages for the wrongful death of their minor daughter. That case, however, was brought under the Pennsylvania wrongful death statute, which permitted such damages. “DOHSA did not displace the application of state law in territorial waters and ‘preserve[d] the application of state statutes to deaths within territorial waters.’”
Learning Point:
In wrongful death actions brought under general maritime law for accidents occurring in a state’s territorial waters, non-dependent survivors of a non-seamen should not be permitted to recover non-pecuniary losses.
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