Horsley v. Mobil Oil Corp., s. 93-1664

• Decision Date: 03 November 1993
• Docket Number: Nos. 93-1664,93-1736,s. 93-1664
• Citation: 15 F.3d 200
• Parties: , 62 USLW 2510 Jonathan C. HORSLEY, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. MOBIL OIL CORPORATION, Appellee. (Two Cases) . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 200

15 F.3d 200

1994 A.M.C. 1372, 62 USLW 2510

Jonathan C. HORSLEY, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. MOBIL OIL CORPORATION, Appellee. (Two Cases)

Nos. 93-1664, 93-1736.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Nov. 3, 1993.

Decided Feb. 3, 1994.

Christopher M. Perry, with whom Brendan J. Perry and Terance P. Perry, Holliston, MA, were on brief, for appellants.

Brian P. Flanagan, with whom F. Dore Hunter and Flanagan & Hunter, P.C., Boston, MA, were on brief, for appellee.

Before CYR, Circuit Judge, BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge, and STAHL, Circuit Judge.

CYR, Circuit Judge.

We must decide whether either punitive damages or damages for loss of parental and spousal society allegedly caused by a nonfatal injury to a seaman aboard a vessel in territorial waters are recoverable in an unseaworthiness action under the general maritime law. On plenary review, see Gaskell v. The Harvard Coop. Soc'y, 3 F.3d 495, 497 (1st Cir.1993), we affirm the summary judgment entered against plaintiffs-appellants based on the analysis required under Miles v. Apex Marine Corp., 498 U.S. 19, 111 S.Ct. 317, 112 L.Ed.2d 275 (1990).

I BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs-appellants Jonathan C. Horsley and his wife, Elizabeth Horsley, allege that he sustained a back injury in the course of his duties aboard a vessel owned by defendant-appellee Mobil Oil Corporation while operating in the territorial waters of the Gulf of Maine. Their unseaworthiness action involves, inter alia, claims for punitive damages by Jonathan C. Horsley; and damages for loss of parental society by their minor son and loss of spousal society by Elizabeth Horsley. The district court entered summary judgment for Mobil on all three claims. 825 F.Supp. 424 (1993). ¹

II DISCUSSION

The Supreme Court has decided that damages for loss of society are not cognizable in Two statutes are directly relevant to general maritime claims based on fatal injury: the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), 46 U.S.C.App. Sec. 761, et seq., and the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.App. Sec. 688, both enacted in 1920. DOHSA makes specific provision only for the recovery of damages for pecuniary loss. See 46 U.S.C.App. Sec. 762 ("The recovery ... shall be a fair and just compensation for the pecuniary loss sustained by the persons for whose benefit the suit is brought...."). Notwithstanding that the fatal injury at issue in Miles did not take place on the high seas, the Supreme Court considered DOHSA indicative of congressional intent in cases involving fatal injuries to seamen in territorial waters as well. Miles, 498 U.S. at 31, 111 S.Ct. at 325.

                a general maritime action for the wrongful death of a seaman, because "[i]t would be inconsistent with [the Supreme Court's] place in the constitutional scheme were we to sanction more expansive remedies in a judicially-created cause of action in which liability is without fault than Congress has allowed in cases of death resulting from negligence."  Miles, 498 U.S. at 33, 111 S.Ct. at 326.   The Court reasoned that the remedial limitations imposed by Congress in admiralty actions predicated on negligence likewise restrict an admiralty court's power to fashion damages remedies in actions under the general maritime law, such as the present unseaworthiness claim against a vessel where liability may be imposed without establishing fault.  See Seas Shipping Co. v. Sieracki, 328 U.S. 85, 94-95, 66 S.Ct. 872, 877, 90 L.Ed. 1099 (1946) (noting unseaworthiness "is essentially a species of liability without fault").  Thus, the admiralty court's remedial autonomy is "both direct[ed] and delimit[ed]" by federal statute, Miles, 498 U.S. at 27, 111 S.Ct. at 323, insofar as Congress has spoken directly to the point in issue, id. at 31, 111 S.Ct. at 325, citing Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham, 436 U.S. 618, 625, 98 S.Ct. 2010, 2015, 56 L.Ed.2d 581 (1978)
                

Since the Jones Act does afford a right of action to dependents of seamen fatally injured in territorial waters, it formed the principal focus of inquiry in Miles. The Jones Act simply incorporated by reference the remedial scheme established twelve years earlier under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), 46 U.S.C.App. Sec. 688. FELA, the progenitor of all federal liability schemes, simultaneously afforded a uniform cause of action for railroad workers and dispensed with traditional master-and-servant defenses. See generally Rogers v. Missouri Pac. R. Co., 352 U.S. 500, 77 S.Ct. 443, 1 L.Ed.2d 493 (1957). FELA's language is unhelpful on its face, however, as it simply provides for "damages," without further elaboration. 45 U.S.C. Sec. 51.

This seeming dead-end is averted, nevertheless, by Congress's adoption and incorporation, in the Jones Act, of the remedial scheme previously established under FELA. The courts may assume that Congress, at the time it enacted the Jones Act, was cognizant of the decisional law developed under FELA during the twelve-year interim between the enactment of the two statutes. Miles, 498 U.S. at 32, 111 S.Ct. at 325; see generally Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U.S. 677, 696-97, 99 S.Ct. 1946, 1957-58, 60 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) ("It is always appropriate to assume that our elected representatives, like other citizens, know the law....").

The Miles Court relied extensively on just such a decision, see Michigan Cent. R. Co. v. Vreeland, 227 U.S. 59, 33 S.Ct. 192, 57 L.Ed. 417 (1913), which revealed yet another evolutionary layer in the development of wrongful death statutes:

In [Vreeland ] the Court explained that the language of the FELA wrongful death provision is essentially identical to that of Lord Campbell's Act, 9 & 10 Vict. ch. 93 (1846), the first wrongful death statute. Lord Campbell's Act also did not limit explicitly the "damages" to be recovered, but that Act and the many state statutes that followed it consistently had been interpreted as providing recovery only for pecuniary loss.

Miles, 498 U.S. at 32, 111 S.Ct. at 325 (emphasis added), citing Vreeland, 227 U.S. at 69-71, 33 S.Ct. at 195. Finally, the Miles Court retraced the development of wrongful death statutes into the Twentieth Century and the meaning of the unelaborated FELA term "damages" became clear When Congress passed the Jones Act, the Vreeland gloss on FELA, and the hoary tradition behind it, were well established. Incorporating FELA unaltered into the Jones Act, Congress must have intended to incorporate the pecuniary limitation on damages as well. We assume that Congress is aware of existing law when it passes legislation. There is no recovery for loss of society in a Jones Act wrongful death action.

Id.

Uniformity provided the companion rationale for the Miles decision. See Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc., 398 U.S. 375, 402, 90 S.Ct. 1772, 1788, 26 L.Ed.2d 339 (1970) ("admiralty law should be 'a system of law coextensive with, and operating uniformly in, the whole country.' " (quoting The Lottawanna, 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 558, 575, 22 L.Ed. 654 (1875))). As noted, damages awarded under DOHSA are restricted to pecuniary loss. Miles cautions that the traditional gap-filling function of the admiralty court is to be exercised only in furtherance of the presumed congressional objective of uniformity:

We no longer live in an era when seamen and their loved ones must look primarily to the courts as a source of substantive legal protection from injury and death; Congress and the States have legislated extensively in these areas. In this era, an admiralty court should look primarily to these legislative enactments for policy guidance. We may supplement these statutory remedies where doing so would achieve the uniform vindication of such policies consistent with our constitutional mandate, but we must also keep strictly within the limits imposed by Congress.

Miles, 498 U.S. at 27, 111 S.Ct. at 323 (emphasis added). Thus, Miles "restore[d] a uniform rule applicable to all actions for the wrongful death of a seaman, whether under DOHSA, the Jones Act, or the general maritime law[,]" by limiting damages in wrongful death actions to the amount of pecuniary loss. Miles, 498 U.S. at 33, 111 S.Ct. at 326.

A. Damages in Nonfatal-Injury Cases

The district court relied primarily on Murray v. Anthony J. Bertucci Constr. Co., 958 F.2d 127 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 190, 121 L.Ed.2d 134 (1992), in holding that Miles precludes punitive damages and damages for loss of society under the Jones Act. See also Smith v. Trinidad Corp., 992 F.2d 996 (9th Cir.1993) (adopting Murray reasoning) (per curiam); and Lollie v. Brown Marine Serv., Inc., 995 F.2d 1565 (11th Cir.1993) (same). For the reasons discussed below, we agree.

Under the analysis obligated by Miles, we inquire whether Congress has preempted all interpretive discretion on the part of the admiralty court--as the traditional protector and benefactor of its wards--in extending damages relief for non pecuniary loss in the present context. At the outset, we note distinctions pertinent to our inquiry. First, since DOHSA is inapplicable to nonfatal injuries sustained by a seaman aboard a vessel operating in territorial waters, it has no direct bearing on the damages remedies presently at issue. Accordingly, whatever direct analogic bearing DOHSA had in Miles is diminished in the present context. Second, as concerns the Jones Act, Vreeland is inapposite to the availability of damages for non pecuniary loss in cases involving non fatal injuries. ² The Miles...