Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 168.0

524US1

Unit: $U78

[09-06-00 18:35:42] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 524 U. S. 116 (1998)

123

Opinion of the Court

ginbotham, however, involved only the scope of the remedies
available in a wrongful-death action, and thus did not ad-
dress the availability of other causes of action.

Conceding that DOHSA does not authorize recovery for a
decedent’s pre-death pain and suffering, petitioners seek to
recover such damages through a general maritime survival
action. Petitioners argue that general maritime law recog-
nizes a survival action, which permits a decedent’s estate
to recover damages that the decedent would have been
able to recover but for his death, including pre-death pain
and suffering. And, they contend, because DOHSA is a
wrongful-death statute––giving surviving relatives a cause
of action for losses they suffered as a result of the decedent’s
death––it has no bearing on the availability of a survival
action.

We disagree. DOHSA expresses Congress’

judgment
that there should be no such cause of action in cases of death
on the high seas. By authorizing only certain surviving rel-
atives to recover damages, and by limiting damages to the
pecuniary losses sustained by those relatives, Congress pro-
vided the exclusive recovery for deaths that occur on the
high seas. Petitioners concede that their proposed survival
action would necessarily expand the class of beneﬁciaries in
cases of death on the high seas by permitting decedents’ es-
tates (and their various beneﬁciaries) to recover compensa-
tion. They further concede that their cause of action would
expand the recoverable damages for deaths on the high seas
by permitting the recovery of nonpecuniary losses, such as
pre-death pain and suffering. Because Congress has al-
ready decided these issues, it has precluded the judiciary
from enlarging either the class of beneﬁciaries or the recov-
erable damages. As we noted in Higginbotham, “Congress
did not limit DOHSA beneﬁciaries to recovery of their pecu-
niary losses in order to encourage the creation of nonpecuni-
ary supplements.”

Id., at 625.