Court Opinion

ID: 9446413
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:53:36.167587+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:38.308160
License: Public Domain

WATERMAN, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the result the majority has reached but I would add to their opinion.
I would hold that Congress acted within the constitutional power granted to it when it created the rights of action in admiralty found in the Death on the High Seas Act; and I would further state that the extension of the rights of action in admiralty therein granted so as to include rights of action for death resulting from events in the air space above the high seas is not an unconstitutional interpretation or an improper extension of that proper grant of jurisdiction.
Further, I believe it pertinent to point out that the Congress in enacting 46 U.S.C. § 761 superseded state created causes of action for wrongful death arising from events occurring on the high seas. Wilson v. Transocean Airlines, D.C.N.D.Cal.1954, 121 F.Supp. 85. And see Echavarria v. Atlantic & Caribbean Steam Nav. Co., D.C.E.D.N.Y.1935, 10 F.Supp. 677.