Opinion ID: 458544
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Maritime Tort

Text: 23 It is elementary, almost axiomatic, that maritime torts are those which fall within the admiralty jurisdiction or satisfy the tests for the application of admiralty law. Executive Jet Aviation v. Cleveland, 409 U.S. 249, 93 S.Ct. 493, 34 L.Ed.2d 454 (1972), makes this point plainly: [d]etermination of the question whether a tort is 'maritime' and thus within the admiralty jurisdiction of the federal courts.... Id. at 253, 93 S.Ct. at 497 (emphasis added); see also Victory Carriers, Inc. v. Law, 404 U.S. 202, 204, 92 S.Ct. 418, 420, 30 L.Ed.2d 383 (1971). The Court in Executive Jet began its analysis of the proper scope of maritime tort jurisdiction from this premise, and rejected the traditional dependence of the determination solely upon the locality of the wrong. Id. The Court concluded that a showing of a relationship of the wrong to traditional maritime activity is often more sensible and more consonant with the purposes of maritime law than is a purely mechanical application of the locality test. Id. 409 U.S. at 261, 93 S.Ct. at 501; see also Austin v. Unarco Industries, Inc., 705 F.2d 1 (1st Cir.), cert. dismissed, 463 U.S. 1247, 104 S.Ct. 34, 77 L.Ed.2d 1454 (1983). In Foremost Insurance Co. v. Richardson, 457 U.S. 668, 673, 102 S.Ct. 2654, 2657, 73 L.Ed.2d 300 (1982), the Court held that this two-pronged situs and status test must be met in all actions sought to be governed by admiralty law. 24 Before Executive Jet, then, to be classified as a maritime tort the wrong had to fall within admiralty jurisdiction, which in turn required only that the wrong occur or take effect on navigable waters. Foremost Insurance, 457 U.S. at 672, 102 S.Ct. at 2657; Kermarec v. Compagnie Generale, 358 U.S. at 628, 79 S.Ct. at 408; Williams v. Avondale Shipyards, Inc., 452 F.2d 955, 958-59 (5th Cir.1971). One special maritime tort action, the strict liability unseaworthiness action for stevedores and other shorebased maritime workers, however, required that additional elements besides admiralty jurisdiction be satisfied. To fasten liability without fault onto a vessel and its owners, the courts also required that the vessel be in navigation, Waganer v. Sea-Land Service, Inc., 486 F.2d 955, 958 (5th Cir.1973); see also Williams v. Avondale, 452 F.2d at 957; G. Gilmore & C. Black, The Law of Admiralty 441 (1975), and that the injured worker or his work group be engaged in traditional ship's work, not some land-based specialty work. West v. United States, 361 U.S. 118, 122, 80 S.Ct. 189, 192, 4 L.Ed.2d 161 (1959); United Pilots Association v. Halecki, 358 U.S. 613, 79 S.Ct. 517, 3 L.Ed.2d 541 (1959). 25 The unseaworthiness action, despite its strictures, engendered a vast amount of litigation and imposed great costs upon stevedore employers and shipowners, which resulted in congressional abolition of it through the passage of Sec. 905(b). We briefly review the genesis and history of the unseaworthiness action before turning to examine the legislative history of Sec. 905(b) and the other 1972 Amendments to the LHWCA.