Opinion ID: 652879
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Application of State Law in a Maritime Wrongful Death Action.

Text: 14 Magistrate Judge Latimer dismissed the Wahlstroms' state law claims because those claims  'would be in conflict with the applicable substantive admiralty law.'  Wahlstrom, 800 F.Supp. at 1063 (quoting Icelandic Coast Guard v. United Technologies Corp., 722 F.Supp. 942, 949 (D.Conn.1989)). According to Magistrate Judge Latimer, because Connecticut tort law would permit recovery of damages by nondependent beneficiaries and maritime law would not, the Supremacy Clause mandates preemption of state law in this case. Id. We go further and hold that federal maritime law, whether or not it conflicts with state law, applies to actions for wrongful death in state territorial waters brought under the admiralty jurisdiction of the federal courts. We premise this holding upon Supreme Court precedent which, over the past thirty-three years, has transformed the face of the federal maritime wrongful death remedy. 15 In The Harrisburg, 119 U.S. 199, 213, 7 S.Ct. 140, 146, 30 L.Ed. 358 (1886), the Supreme Court, after reviewing maritime law as accepted and received by maritime nations generally, held that there was no right to recover for wrongful death under the general maritime law in the absence of a statute giving the right. The Court express[ed] no opinion whether a suit could be maintained under a state wrongful death statute, because the suit at issue would have been barred in any event by the applicable state statutes of limitations. Id. at 214, 7 S.Ct. at 147. In Western Fuel Co. v. Garcia, 257 U.S. 233, 242, 42 S.Ct. 89, 90, 66 L.Ed. 210 (1921), however, the Court did reach the issue and held that state wrongful death statutes could provide a remedy for a wrongful death in state territorial waters. 16 In 1920, Congress changed the complexion of the recovery available for wrongful death under maritime law by passing two statutes which specifically afforded federal remedies for wrongful death to certain classes of plaintiffs in maritime actions. One statute, the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), 46 U.S.C.app. Secs. 761-767 (1988), gave the representative of anyone killed on the high seas (i.e., more than three miles from shore) the right to bring a wrongful death action. 2 DOHSA explicitly does not apply to any waters within the territorial limits of any State. Id. Sec. 767. The second statute, the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.app. Sec. 688 (1988), gave the personal representative of a seaman who died in the course of employment the right to maintain a wrongful death action for negligence. 3 There was still, however, no right of recovery under the general maritime law for deaths in state territorial waters of nonseamen or seamen who died as a result of a vessel's unseaworthiness rather than negligence. Thus, after the enactment of DOHSA and the Jones Act, some actions for wrongful death in territorial waters could still be brought under state wrongful death statutes. See, e.g., The Vessel M/V Tungus v. Skovgaard, 358 U.S. 588, 592, 79 S.Ct. 503, 506, 3 L.Ed.2d 524 (1959) (right of recovery for wrongful death in state territorial waters, and limitations on that right, were those established by state law). 17 All of this changed with the Supreme Court's decision in Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc., 398 U.S. 375, 90 S.Ct. 1772, 26 L.Ed.2d 339 (1970). In Moragne, the Court overruled The Harrisburg and held that an action does lie under general maritime law for death caused by violation of maritime duties. Id. at 409. The Court was addressing the specific issue of what, if any, remedy should be available for a wrongful death caused within state territorial waters by a vessel's unseaworthiness, a claim for which there was no right of recovery under applicable state law. Id. at 376-77. In fashioning the remedy, however, the Supreme Court did not limit the new right of recovery to unseaworthiness claims, but instead established a general remedy for wrongful death under maritime law. In doing so, the Court stated: 18 Our recognition of a right to recover for wrongful death under general maritime law will assure uniform vindication of federal policies, removing the tensions and discrepancies that have resulted from the necessity to accommodate state remedial statutes to exclusively maritime substantive concepts. E.g., Hess v. United States, 361 U.S. 314 [80 S.Ct. 341, 4 L.Ed.2d 305] (1960); Goett v. Union Carbide Corp., 361 U.S. 340 [80 S.Ct. 357, 4 L.Ed.2d 341] (1960). Such uniformity not only will further the concerns of [DOHSA and the Jones Act] but also will give effect to the constitutionally based principle that federal admiralty law should be a system of law coextensive with, and operating uniformly in, the whole country. The Lottawanna, [88 U.S. 558] 21 Wall. 558, 575 [22 L.Ed. 684] (1875). 19 Id. at 401-02 (footnote omitted). In our view, the Supreme Court's creation in Moragne of a federal wrongful death action under general maritime law precludes the use of state wrongful death statutes in maritime claims. Without such preclusive effect, the tensions and discrepancies resulting from application of state remedial statutes could not be removed. 20 This view is fortified by rulings of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. In Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham, 436 U.S. 618, 98 S.Ct. 2010, 56 L.Ed.2d 581 (1978), the Supreme Court recognized that under Moragne one national rule applies to fatalities in territorial waters. According to the Court, the Moragne rule of uniformity was needed because, at the time the case was decided, fatal accidents on the high seas had an adequate federal remedy, while the same accidents nearer shore might yield more generous awards, or none at all, depending on the law of the nearest State. Id. at 624 n. 18. Other courts have concluded that after Moragne, federal maritime law  'displaces state wrongful death statutes in territorial waters.'  Neal v. Barisich, Inc., 707 F.Supp. 862, 866 & n. 5 (E.D.La.) (quoting Thurmond v. Delta Well Surveyors, 836 F.2d 952, 958 n. 2 (5th Cir.1988) (Garwood, J., concurring)) (collecting cases), aff'd mem., 889 F.2d 273 (5th Cir.1989); see also Nelson v. United States, 639 F.2d 469, 473 (9th Cir.1980) (holding that the need for uniformity in maritime wrongful death actions requires extension of Moragne to cover claims based on negligence, to the exclusion of state wrongful death statutes); In re S/S Helena (Sincere Navigation Corp. v. United States), 529 F.2d 744, 753 (5th Cir.1976) (Moragne wrongful death remedy precludes recognition in admiralty of state statutes); Shield v. Bayliner Marine Corp., 822 F.Supp. 81, 83 (D.Conn.1993) (The fact that plaintiff relies partly on diversity jurisdiction does not affect the rule that maritime law applies. Thus, to the extent plaintiff seeks to recover under Connecticut state law, his claim must be dismissed.) (citing Wahlstrom, 800 F.Supp. at 1062-63); Gilmore v. Witschorek, 411 F.Supp. 491, 494 (E.D.Ill.1976) (same); cf. Icelandic Coast Guard, 722 F.Supp. at 949 (Even if plaintiff's commercial losses would be cognizable under the applicable state tort law products liability scheme of either Iceland or Connecticut, claims for such losses nonetheless are not permitted where they would be in conflict with the applicable substantive admiralty law [footnote omitted].); In re DFDS Seaways (Bahamas) Ltd., 684 F.Supp. 1160, 1162 (S.D.N.Y.1987) (It is well settled that federal maritime law is to be applied to the exclusion of conflicting state law even in state courts.); Complaint of Cambria S.S. Co. (Rischmiller v. Dahl), 505 F.2d 517, 521 (6th Cir.1974) (although death occurred in state territorial waters, court declined to apply state law because post-Moragne appellate decisions have endeavored generally to develop a uniform body of federal law, neither borrowing automatically from federal statutory provisions, nor applying any particular state law), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 975, 95 S.Ct. 1399, 43 L.Ed.2d 655 (1975). Accordingly, we conclude that federal maritime law, rather than Connecticut law, must be applied in the present case. 21