Opinion ID: 569320
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Past medical expenses in addition to limitation fund

Text: 34 AWI cross-appeals the district court's supplemental decision to award Brister cure in addition to the limitation fund. The maintenance and cure award at issue in this appeal was Brister's past medical expenses amounting to $40,747.52 that AWI previously had refused to pay. 11 AWI maintains that because at least part of the jury award was for past medical expenses, and the amount of the cure award did not exceed the limitation fund, the district court could not properly require payment in addition to the limitation fund. Although AWI concedes that Brister may be entitled to maintenance and cure in excess of the limitation fund at some future point in time, it claims that the district court could not properly take that possibility into consideration now. 35 A seaman's right to maintenance and cure is implied in the employment contract between seaman and shipowner. 12 It in no sense is predicated on the fault or negligence of the shipowner. Aguilar v. Standard Oil of New Jersey, 318 U.S. 724, 730, 63 S.Ct. 930, 934, 87 L.Ed. 1107 (1943). Thus, an owner of a vessel is almost automatically liable for the cost of medical treatment and basic living expenses when a seaman in its employ is injured. In contrast, a determination of a shipowner's right to limitation of liability focuses on whether the shipowner can be held at fault for the seaman's injury. See Nuccio, 415 F.2d at 229. 36 A maintenance and cure claim typically accompanies other claims, such as the Jones Act and unseaworthiness claims in this case, which allow for a more liberal recovery. As both parties agree, a shipowner cannot limit its liability for maintenance and cure. It may bring a limitation action only in response to a finding of negligence or unseaworthiness. As a result, an award for maintenance and cure is independent of these other sources of recovery. 37 Nevertheless, a seaman clearly can receive only one recovery for his medical expenses. Since the element of past medical expenses is inherent in each of the two types of recoveries, there must not be a duplication in the final award whether it is done by a Judge sitting in admiralty, by a jury hearing both phases where jurisdiction exists, or partly by the jury and partly by the Judge. Vickers v. Tumey, 290 F.2d 426, 435 (5th Cir.1961); see also Fitzgerald v. United States Lines, 374 U.S. 16, 19 & n. 6, 83 S.Ct. 1646, 1649 & n. 6, 10 L.Ed.2d 720 (1963) (recognizing the overlap in potential recoveries under the Jones Act and a maintenance and cure claim, and the need to avoid duplication of damages). AWI asserts that because the limitation fund is greater than Brister's medical expenses, the district court effectively granted Brister a double recovery. 38 The record indicates that the district court was aware that the Jones Act award and the cure award could have been potentially duplicative. When, during deliberations, the jury asked for the amount of Brister's medical expenses, the district judge commented that he generally would have told the jury to exclude the medical expenses, ostensibly because they would fall under maintenance and cure, but added that he could not do so in this specific case because the reasonableness of the medical expenses was in dispute. The court entered judgment according to the jury's lump sum verdict of $385,000 in damages for Brister and $25,000 to his wife for loss of consortium. 39 After the limitation proceeding, the court entertained Brister's motion for a supplemental judgment of $40,747.52 to cover the amount that AWI owed to Brister as cure. The court acknowledged that the limitation judgment capped AWI's liability at $108,635. Reasoning that the cure award was not subject to limitation, it subtracted the medical expenses from the $385,000 verdict for Brister and held that the remaining $344,252.48 was subject to limitation. On this basis, it granted the supplemental award of $40,747.52 to Brister. 40 We agree with AWI that Brister would not be entitled to a double recovery for past medical expenses. However, a district court is entitled to consider the extent to which the jury award probably included amounts which are the substantial equivalent of cure. Pelotto v. L & N Towing Co., 604 F.2d 396, 404 (5th Cir.1979). Although the district court's consideration of the amount of the award attributable to cure would have been more straightforward if it had excluded the cure award when it originally entered the judgment, rather than modifying it after the limitation proceeding, we do not find that the district court erred in concluding that the medical expenses reflected in the jury award were not subject to the limitation fund. 13