Opinion ID: 783410
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Seaman's Right to Maintenance

Text: 35 Under the general maritime law of the United States, maintenance refers to the duty of a vessel owner to provide food and lodging, comparable to that received aboard the vessel, to a seaman who falls ill or becomes injured while in the service of the vessel. See, e.g., Vella v. Ford Motor Co., 421 U.S. 1, 3, 95 S.Ct. 1381, 43 L.Ed.2d 682 (1975); The Osceola, 189 U.S. 158, 175, 23 S.Ct. 483, 47 L.Ed. 760 (1903); G. Gilmore and C. Black, Jr., The Law of Admiralty 281 (2d ed. 1975) (Gilmore & Black); T. Schoenbaum, Admiralty and Maritime Law § 6-28, at 348 (2d ed. 1994) (Schoenbaum). The duty to pay maintenance arises regardless of whether the shipowner was negligent and regardless of whether the illness or injury was job-related, see, e.g., Vella v. Ford Motor Co., 421 U.S. at 4, 95 S.Ct. 1381; and the duty to make such payments continues until the seaman has recovered or his condition is declared permanent and incurable, see, e.g., id. at 5, 95 S.Ct. 1381; Vaughan v. Atkinson, 369 U.S. 527, 531, 82 S.Ct. 997, 8 L.Ed.2d 88 (1962). 36 The reasons underlying the rule ... are those enumerated in the classic passage by Mr. Justice Story in Harden v. Gordon, Fed. Cas. No. 6047 (C.C.) [1823]: the protection of seamen, who, as a class, are poor, friendless and improvident, from the hazards of illness and abandonment while ill in foreign ports; the inducement to masters and owners to protect the safety and health of seamen while in service; the maintenance of a merchant marine for the commercial service and maritime defense of the nation by inducing men to accept employment in an arduous and perilous service. 37 Vaughan v. Atkinson, 369 U.S. at 531, 82 S.Ct. 997 (internal quotation marks omitted). As a right judicially fashioned to protect poor, friendless and improvident seamen, 38 [m]aintenance ... differs from rights normally classified as contractual. As Mr. Justice Cardozo said in Cortes v. Baltimore Insular Line, supra, [287 U.S. 367,] 371, 53 S.Ct. 173, 77 L.Ed. 368 [1932], the duty to provide maintenance... is imposed by the law itself as one annexed to the employment.... Contractual it is in the sense that it has its source in a relation which is contractual in origin, but given the relation, no agreement is competent to abrogate the incident. 39 Vaughan v. Atkinson, 369 U.S. at 532-33, 82 S.Ct. 997 (footnote omitted). See also De Zon v. American President Lines, 318 U.S. 660, 667, 63 S.Ct. 814, 87 L.Ed. 1065 (1943) (a shipowner's provision of maintenance is a duty that no private agreement is competent to abrogate.) Historically, the amount of a maintenance award was determined by the court, taking into account all relevant circumstances, such as the somewhat equivalent costs for housing and food ashore as well as regional differences in prices in the United States. G. Mangone, United States Admiralty Law 127 (1997) (Mangone). In the late 1940s, the judicially approved rate of maintenance was $8 per day. See, e.g., Gilmore & Black at 307. That $8-per-day rate remained standard until the 1970s. See, e.g., Gary Michael Haugen, Maintenance and Cure: Contract Right or Legal Obligation?, 62 Tul. L.Rev. 625, 625 (1988). 40 From at least 1957 until the late 1980s, collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) between vessel owners and seamen's unions uniformly set the maintenance rate at $8 per day. See Mangone at 127. Thereafter, some CBAs set different amounts such as $10 per day, see, e.g., Macedo v. F/V Paul & Michelle, 868 F.2d 519, 522 (1st Cir.1989), or $15 per day, see, e.g., Frederick v. Kirby Tankships, Inc., 205 F.3d 1277, 1292 (11th Cir.2000); Durfor v. K-Sea Transportation Corp., No. 00 Civ. 6782, 2001 WL 856612, at  (S.D.N.Y. July 30, 2001), or $30 per day, see, e.g., Covella v. Buchanan Marine, Inc., No. 95 Civ. 6514, 1996 WL 164482, at  (S.D.N.Y. Apr.9, 1996). In the wake of such agreements, defendants in suits by seaman claiming maintenance have contended that the maintenance to which the seaman is entitled is the rate specified in the CBA. This contention has divided the federal courts of appeals that have addressed it, with the First, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits ruling that a seaman who is a member of a union that has agreed to a specified daily rate of maintenance is, despite having incurred higher actual costs, limited to recovery of that rate, see Frederick v. Kirby Tankships, Inc., 205 F.3d 1277, 1292 (11th Cir.2000); Baldassaro v. United States, 64 F.3d 206, 212-13 (5th Cir.1995); Al-Zawkari v. American Steamship Co., 871 F.2d 585, 588 (6th Cir.1989); Macedo v. F/V Paul & Michelle, 868 F.2d 519, 522 (1st Cir.1989); Gardiner v. Sea-Land Service, Inc., 786 F.2d 943, 949-50 (9th Cir.) ( Gardiner ), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 924, 107 S.Ct. 331, 93 L.Ed.2d 303 (1986), and the Third Circuit ruling that the collective bargaining agreement rate is not binding, see Barnes v. Andover Co., L.P., 900 F.2d 630, 640 (3d Cir.1990) ( Barnes ). 41 In Gardiner, the seminal court of appeals decision on this issue, the Ninth Circuit — although rejecting the defense contention that, to the extent a CBA establishes a daily maintenance rate, the traditional right to maintenance has been preempted by the federal labor laws — ruled that the broad policies which underg[ir]d the labor laws, as well as the nature of the collective bargaining process, require nevertheless that the maintenance rate expressed in the collective bargaining agreement be enforced. Id. at 948. The court reasoned that the importance of collective bargaining to industrial peace is such that a CBA, although it could not properly eliminate all right to maintenance, may properly limit its amount: 42 Important policies support the enforceability of the maintenance rate involved in this case .... Congress viewed collective bargaining as a key instrument in its effort to promote industrial peace.... Our national labor policy is built on the premise that employees can bargain most effectively for improvements in wages, hours, and working conditions by pooling their economic strength and acting through freely chosen labor organizations. NLRB v. Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co., 388 U.S. 175, 180, 87 S.Ct.2001, 2006, 18 L.Ed.2d 1123 (1967). Consequently, this court will not lightly embrace the repudiation of contractual obligations enumerated in a collective bargaining agreement and will choose the rule that will promote the enforcement of collective bargaining agreements.... Although the right to maintenance is presumed to exist because of its establishment at common law, its rate may be subject to the negotiation process. The collective agreement covers the whole employment relationship. It calls into being a new common law — the common law of a particular industry or of a particular plant. United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Nav. Co., 363 U.S. 574, 578-79, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 1350-51, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409 (1960). Thus, it is clearly the policy of our national labor legislation to encourage both labor and management to negotiate contracts that will effectively regulate every aspect of their complex relationship.... As the Supreme Court has noted, [t]he mature labor agreement may attempt to regulate all aspects of the complicated relationship, from the most crucial to the most minute over an extended period of time. United Steelworkers of America, 363 U.S. at 580, 80 S.Ct. at 1350-51, 80 S.Ct. 1347. 43 Here, the parties to the agreement included the traditional right to maintenance as a subject of the negotiating process. The resulting collective bargaining agreement incorporated an explicit rate of maintenance as one of its terms. We cannot fairly say that this rate, as a consequence of the normal give and take process of collective bargaining, is not entitled to the same reliability accorded to other terms and conditions within the same agreement. The national labor policy of promoting and encouraging collective bargaining agreements would be unduly compromised were we to conclude otherwise. 44 Gardiner, 786 F.2d at 948-49 (other internal quotation marks omitted) (emphases ours). 45 The court reasoned that, because [t]he rate of maintenance is but one of many elements contained within the Union contract and over which the parties negotiate, id. at 949 (internal quotation marks omitted), the adequacy of the maintenance rate should not be examined in isolation by the court because the determination of its adequacy in relation to the whole scheme of benefits has already been made by the union and the seamen who voted for the contract, id. Observing that there may be a considerable amount of `give and take' exercised by the parties in coming to a final agreement on all of the elements, id. (internal quotation marks omitted), and noting that the collective bargaining agreement in the case before it had, for example, provided for overtime, premium and penalty pay for unpleasant tasks, for very generous vacation allowances, and for such amenities as television sets and feature films, washers/dryers, ice cream and fresh baked bread, id., the court concluded that acceptance of a particular package of benefits should be binding on the union members, id. 46 [W]hen a benefits package includes an express reference to a precise rate of maintenance, the adequacy of this rate, considered in isolation, is not a subject for judicial speculation when the rate is part of a total package of wages and benefits resulting from the process of collective bargaining. 47 Id. 48 The Ninth Circuit's reasoning in Gardiner was soon followed by the Sixth Circuit, see Al-Zawkari v. American S.S. Co., 871 F.2d at 588 ([T]he maintenance per diem rate, like any other benefit, which is the ultimate result from give and take collective bargaining between the parties, should be binding on them.... Courts generally have decided that it is more appropriate for the courts to enforce privately negotiated contractual rates of maintenance, rather than engaging in overt legislation of particular dollar figures.), and by the First Circuit in Macedo v. F/V Paul & Michelle, 868 F.2d at 522 (Supreme Court's dictum in Vaughan v. Atkinson, that no agreement is competent to abrogate the incident of maintenance, 369 U.S. at 533, 82 S.Ct. 997, is not dispositive in the quite different circumstances of a collective bargaining agreement). 49 Thereafter, the Third Circuit reached the contrary view in Barnes, holding that a union cannot bargain away the individual seaman's common law right to maintenance by agreeing to a wholly inadequate figure as a daily maintenance rate. 900 F.2d at 640. The Barnes court acknowledged that almost every case concerning the right to maintenance relies on Justice Story's description of the seaman as `generally poor and friendless.' Id. at 636 (quoting Harden v. Gordon, 11 F. Cas. 480, 483 (No. 6,047) (CC Me. 1823)). And it acknowledged that today those seamen who are unionized are neither friendless nor improvident, Barnes, 900 F.2d at 636; that the Seafarers International Union... has obtained for its members overtime and premium pay, vacation allowances, disability pensions, and amenities such as televisions, washers and dryers, coffee breaks, and midnight lunches, id. at 637; that now, under union contracts[,] ill or injured seamen are quickly repatriated, id.; and that the changed circumstances of seamen's unionization undercut the rationale supporting the traditional right to maintenance and cure, id. However, the Barnes court found it inconsistent both with the traditional doctrine of maintenance and with [the] rejection of preemption of maintenance by the labor laws to hold that the maintenance rate set in the collective bargaining agreement is binding on a seaman who can show higher daily expenses. Id. at 640. Having noted that the Supreme Court has shown no inclination to depart from its long-established solicitude for seamen, id. at 637, the Third Circuit concluded that unless Congress determines that the circumstances giving rise to the need for maintenance have changed and that collective bargaining is now a more appropriate way to deal with the issue of the ill or injured seaman, the common law remedy must remain in full force, id. at 640. 50 Thereafter, despite the rationale of Barnes, the Eleventh and Fifth Circuits found the reasoning of Gardiner more persuasive and ruled that, in light of unionization, seamen should no longer be considered weak and friendless, and that in the absence of any assertion of unfairness in the collective bargaining agreement as a whole the CBA-established maintenance rate should be honored. See Frederick v. Kirby Tankships, Inc., 205 F.3d at 1291-92; Baldassaro v. United States, 64 F.3d at 212-13. 51 No opinion of this Court has discussed the issue of whether the maintenance rate in a CBA should be upheld when that amount is less than the unionized seaman's actual expenses. In a case involving a seaman who was not a union member, we held that the $8-per-day union rate was not binding. See Incandela v. American Dredging Co., 659 F.2d 11, 14 (2d Cir.1981). In a case brought by a union member, we affirmed the judgment limiting his maintenance award to the $8-per-day collective bargaining rate, but we did so without opinion. See Dixon v. Maritime Overseas Corp., 490 F.Supp. 1191, 1194 (S.D.N.Y.), aff'd, 646 F.2d 560 (2d Cir.1980) (table), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 838, 102 S.Ct. 145, 70 L.Ed.2d 120 (1981). 52 The district court opinions within this Circuit have been divided. Some have adopted the majority view initiated in Gardiner. See, e.g., Denardo v. Energy Transportation Corp., No. 87 Civ. 7202, 1989 WL 58038, at  (S.D.N.Y. May 19, 1989) (CBA rate of $8 per day binding); Dixon v. Maritime Overseas Corp., 490 F.Supp. at 1194 (same). But most have adopted the view of the Third Circuit in Barnes. See, e.g., Durfor v. K-Sea Transportation Corp., 2001 WL 856612, at - (CBA rate of $15 per day not binding); Bachir v. Transoceanic Cable Ship Co., No. 98 Civ. 4625, 1998 WL 831035, at  (S.D.N.Y. Nov.24, 1998) (CBA rate of $8 per day not binding); Brown v. United States, 882 F.Supp. 1424, 1427 (S.D.N.Y. 1995) (same); Gillikin v. United States, 764 F.Supp. 261, 264-65 (E.D.N.Y.1991) (same). 53 After reviewing the competing factors, we adopt the majority view as elaborated by Gardiner. We are persuaded by the considerations that [n]ational labor policy has been built on the premise that by pooling their economic strength and acting through a labor organization freely chosen by the majority, the employees of an appropriate unit have the most effective means of bargaining for improvements in wages, hours, and working conditions, NLRB v. Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co., 388 U.S. 175, 180, 87 S.Ct. 2001, 18 L.Ed.2d 1123 (1967); that the federal courts have authority to fashion a body of federal law for the enforcement of... collective bargaining agreements, Textile Workers Union of America v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U.S. 448, 451, 77 S.Ct. 912, 1 L.Ed.2d 972 (1957); and that today, most seamen are union members with a union-negotiated package of compensation and benefits of which the right to maintenance is a small component, Schoenbaum § 6-32, at 361. The modern reality is that most seamen are no longer friendless; rather, they have gained strength through collectivity, and they are a well-organized work force with sophisticated leaders who constantly press for better working conditions, pay, and benefits, as well as increased job security. Thus, the need for judicial intervention to protect seamen has been substantially lessened. Recognizing both the goal of providing protection for injured seamen and the importance of collective bargaining to industrial peace, we conclude that, in light of the reality of modern circumstances, the appropriate accommodation between federal maritime common law and federal common law for the enforcement of collective bargaining agreements is to allow unionized seamen to bargain for rights and privileges they prefer in exchange for limiting the per diem rate of maintenance. 54 As noted in Part I.B above, § 13 of the collective bargaining agreement between BSM and Ammar's union, the Seafarers International Union, provides that when a member is entitled to maintenance, the rate is to be $8 per day. That agreement also covers work rules, compensation including wage increases, and work-related perquisites including bonuses, overtime, vacation, and benefits plans. Plainly, many, if not all, aspects of the seamen's working conditions were considered and were the subject of bargaining. Ammar does not assert that that agreement was not a legitimately negotiated agreement, or that his interests were not adequately represented in the negotiation process, or that the agreement as a whole is unfair. Nor have we seen in the record any reason to believe that the collective bargaining process was unfair or that the maintenance provision in the CBA was not subject to negotiation. We conclude that, in these circumstances, although $8 per day is not sufficient to meet modern daily living expenses and would be an inappropriate rate if viewed in isolation, that per diem is more properly viewed as but a small component of the union-negotiated package of compensation and benefits that should as a package be accorded deference from the courts. We thus conclude that the district court should have limited Ammar's recovery of maintenance to the CBA-established rate of $8 per day, and we remand for recalculation of that award. 55