Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc.
Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.
Status
1,103 later cases cite Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc.; 222 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.
Relying on Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc.?
This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.
Treatments
Superseded by Statute
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The Supreme Court recognized that the 1972 LHWCA amendments foreclosed the unseaworthiness claim Moragne's widow originally brought, while extending Moragne's general maritime wrongful-death action to true seamen.
Miles v. Apex Marine Corp. · Supreme Court of the United States · filed
Were we to limit Moragne to its facts, Miles would have no general maritime wrongful death action. Indeed, were we to limit Moragne to its facts, that case would no longer have any applicability at all. In 1972, Congress amended the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA), 86 Stat. 1251, as amended, 33 U. S. C. §§901-950, to bar any recovery from shipowners for the death or injury of a longshoreman or harbor worker resulting from breach of the duty of seaworthiness. See 33 U. S. C. § 905(b); American Export Lines, Inc. v. Alvez, 446 U. S. 274, 282, n. 9 (1980). If Moragne’s widow brought her action today, it would be foreclosed by statute.
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The district court held that the 1972 LHWCA amendments displaced Moragne's unseaworthiness cause of action for longshore workers, leaving them a negligence action under § 905(b).
Smallwood v. American Trading & Transportation Co. · N.D. Cal. · filed
Both parties start their analysis with Moragne v. State Marine Lines, 398 U.S. 375, 90 S.Ct. 1772, 26 L.Ed,2d 339 (1970), in which the Supreme Court adopted a wrongful death remedy for longshore workers under general maritime law based on unseaworthiness. However, as this court has previously noted, the unseaworthiness cause of action for longshore workers adopted in Moragne was abrogated by Congress in its 1972 amendments to the LHWCA, so that such workers now are limited to a negligence cause of action.
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Limited
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The district court held that only a decedent's personal representative has standing to bring a Moragne wrongful-death action.
Futch v. Midland Enterprises, Inc. · M.D. La. · filed
While there are many unanswered questions as to the exact nature of the so-called Moragne-type general maritime cause of action, if indeed any such “new” right of action was in fact created, the Court here is only concerned with the question of whether or not this particular plaintiff has standing to bring this particular suit. We conclude that he does not. ... Consequently, when we look to other federal laws for guidance, and when we seek uniformity, we must conclude that in order for plaintiff to sue for Moragne-type damages, he must be a personal representative of the decedent.
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The Louisiana Court of Appeal held that loss of love and affection was unavailable under the new maritime wrongful-death remedy.
Strickland v. Nutt · Louisiana Court of Appeal, First Circuit · filed
The Moragne case, with the desire for uniformity in maritime death actions announced therein, precludes loss of love and affection as an element of damage here.
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The Fifth Circuit held that survivors could not recover damages for grief under the general maritime wrongful-death action.
Petition of Canal Barge Co. (Jones v. Griffith) · Fifth Circuit · filed
We agree that survivor's grief damages are not recoverable in a general maritime action, although for somewhat different reasons than those given by the court below. Moragne fashioned only the skeletal outline of a federal cause of action for death in state territorial waters caused by breach of general maritime duties. Resolution of ancillary questions, such as the applicable statute of limitations, the beneficiary scheme, and the measure of damages, was left to “await further sifting through the lower courts in future litigation.” ... Today we articulate in part the elements of this still infant maritime death action.
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The Sixth Circuit held that Moragne's action primarily benefits individual beneficiaries, rejecting recovery for general losses to the estate and for a nondependent collateral relative's loss of inheritance.
Claim of Rischmiller v. Dahl · Sixth Circuit · filed
Moragne deliberately left the shaping of the new action to “further sifting through the lower courts in future litigation.” ... Thus, while appellant is not without some authority for the position urged, we hold the better rule to be that the action exists primarily for the benefit of individual beneficiaries, and general losses to the estate are not recoverable.
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The First Circuit held that DOHSA's pecuniary-loss measure, rather than Moragne's nonstatutory remedy, controlled a death on the high seas.
Barbe v. Drummond · First Circuit · filed
Since DOHSA clearly provides a cause of action for wrongful death in this case, we fail to see how Moragne applies. We hold that the measure of damages for wrongful death provided by DOHSA, namely, “pecuniary loss,” controls in the instant case.
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The Supreme Court held that Moragne's nonstatutory remedy could not supplement Congress's express pecuniary-damages rule for deaths governed by DOHSA.
Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham · Supreme Court of the United States · filed
In Moragne, the Court recognized a wrongful-death remedy that supplements federal statutory remedies. But that holding depended on our conclusion that Congress withheld a statutory remedy in coastal waters in order to encourage and preserve supplemental remedies. 398 U. S., at 397-398. Congress did not limit DOHSA beneficiaries to recovery of their pecuniary losses in order to encourage the creation of non-pecuniary supplements.
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The district court held that an unrelated, unmarried dependent could not qualify as a beneficiary under Moragne's wrongful-death remedy.
Ford v. American Original Corp. · E.D. Va. · filed
The Moragne court, however, expressly left various subsidiary questions concerning the nonstatutory death remedy—including the schedule of beneficiaries entitled to recover in such actions—for “further sifting through the lower courts in future litigation.” ... Under the facts of this case, however, we hold that Spady would not be entitled to recover as a beneficiary under any of the three statutes. ... Thus, in order for Spady to recover as a beneficiary, she must qualify as a “decedent's wife” (DOHSA), “surviving widow” (Jones Act), or “surviving spouse” (Virginia statute).
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The en banc Fifth Circuit held that Moragne did not itself create a general-maritime negligence action capable of supplementing the Jones Act.
Ivy v. Security Barge Lines, Inc. · Fifth Circuit (en banc) · filed
Neither Moragne nor Gaudet involved a Jones Act seaman. Each of them dealt only with an unseaworthiness claim asserted under general maritime law. Neither of them intimates even in dicta a change in the Jones Act rule. Other reasons, somewhat more complex, appear to preclude interpreting the Jones Act as being supplemented by a Moragne-engendered negligence action for damages if (but only if) death occurs in territorial waters or on land. Moragne did not create or even discuss an action for negligence; it dealt only with death occasioned by unseaworthiness.
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The district court held that nondependent parents and siblings could not recover loss-of-society damages under Moragne.
Truehart v. Blandon · E.D. La. · filed
The question, then, is whether Moragne wrongful death damages, specifically, loss-of-society damages, may, on grounds of negligence ... by defendants, be awarded to the surviving Trueharts, none of whom was financially dependent on or lived with the decedent. ... In answering the question in the negative, the Court makes the following five observations.
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The Third Circuit held that Moragne did not displace state wrongful-death and survival remedies for nonseamen killed in territorial waters.
Calhoun v. Yamaha Motor Corp. · Third Circuit · filed
And since Moragne explicitly left open a number of questions about remedies, application of state remedies remains permissible to the extent they do not conflict with whatever settled principles exist. ... [W]e cannot find that Moragne displaces state wrongful death remedies for deaths of non-seamen in territorial waters. ... In sum, we hold that general maritime law does not preempt state law wrongful death acts in actions based on the death of a nonseaman in territorial waters, and that such acts therefore govern this case.
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The Fourth Circuit held that Moragne itself recognized a wrongful-death action only for unseaworthiness, not negligence, although it separately extended Moragne's principles to recognize a negligence-based action.
Garris v. Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock Corp. · Fourth Circuit · filed
We agree with the district court that the Supreme Court did not create a general maritime law cause of action for wrongful death based upon negligence in Moragne. We find it appropriate, however, to apply the principles of Moragne and its progeny to recognize one.
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The Eleventh Circuit held that a nondependent parent could not recover loss-of-society damages for a child's death under Moragne's general maritime remedy.
Tucker v. Fearn · Eleventh Circuit · filed
In this interlocutory appeal, the only issue is whether Tucker, as a nondependent parent, may recover loss of society damages for the wrongful death of his minor child under general maritime law. For the reasons outlined below, we conclude that the district court correctly determined that loss of society damages are not recoverable by Tucker in a wrongful death action under general maritime law. ... In Moragne, the Supreme Court did not set forth the scope of the remedies available in a wrongful death action under general maritime law but left such development for future litigation. Moragne, 398 U.S. at 408.
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The district court declined to extend Moragne's loss-of-society remedy to nonseafarers killed in territorial waters.
In re Maryland Marine, Inc. · E.D. La. · filed
Claimants liken themselves to the longshoreman’s widow in Moragne, stating that in the absence of statutory remedies, decedents “have only their general maritime law remedy.” ... The remedy in Moragne, like those of the Jones Act and the LHWCA, are geared toward maritime workers. Therefore, it does not necessarily follow that a common law remedy for the survivors of nonseafarers exists.
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Declined to Follow
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The Ohio Court of Appeals declined to follow Moragne's common-law approach and left any comparable change to Ohio's wrongful-death regime to the legislature.
Shover v. Cordis Corp. · Ohio Court of Appeals · filed
We decline to follow those states that have adopted the view set forth in Moragne, supra, and to judicially legislate a substantive change in wrongful death actions. We maintain that the adoption of the position advocated by Appellant is best left to the General Assembly.
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