Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 166

524US1

Unit: $U78

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

121

Opinion of the Court

gress made the law and it is up to Congress to change
it.”

Id., at 1481.

We granted certiorari, 522 U. S. 1038 (1998), to resolve a
Circuit split concerning the availability of a general maritime
survival action in cases of death on the high seas. Compare,
e. g., In re Korean Air Lines Disaster, 117 F. 3d, at 1481,
with Gray v. Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co., 125 F. 3d
1371, 1385 (CA11 1997).

II

Before Congress enacted DOHSA in 1920, the general law
of admiralty permitted a person injured by tortious conduct
to sue for damages, but did not permit an action to be
brought when the person was killed by that conduct. See
generally R. Hughes, Handbook of Admiralty Law 222–223
(2d ed. 1920). This rule stemmed from the theory that a
right of action was personal to the victim and thus expired
when the victim died. Accordingly, in the absence of an Act
of Congress or state statute providing a right of action, a
suit in admiralty could not be maintained in the courts of the
United States to recover damages for a person’s death. See
The Harrisburg, 119 U. S. 199, 213 (1886); The Alaska, 130
U. S. 201, 209 (1889).1

Congress passed such a statute, and thus authorized re-
covery for deaths on the high seas, with its enactment of
DOHSA. DOHSA provides a cause of action for “the death
of a person . . . caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default
occurring on the high seas,” § 761; this action must be
brought by the decedent’s personal representative “for the
exclusive beneﬁt of the decedent’s wife, husband, parent,

1 We later rejected this rule in Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc.,
398 U. S. 375, 408–409 (1970), by overruling The Harrisburg, 119 U. S. 199
(1886), and holding that a federal remedy for wrongful death exists under
general maritime law.
In Sea-Land Services, Inc. v. Gaudet, 414 U. S.
573, 574 (1974), we further held that such wrongful-death awards could
include compensation for loss of support and services and for loss of
society.