Yamaha Motor Corp., U. S. A. v. Calhoun, 516 U.S. 199, 11 (1996)

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Cite as: 516 U. S. 199 (1996)

Opinion of the Court

The District Court dismissed the claim for wrongful death based on unseaworthiness, citing this Court's decision in The Tungus v. Skovgaard, 358 U. S. 588 (1959). There, a sharply divided Court held that "when admiralty adopts a State's right of action for wrongful death, it must enforce the right as an integrated whole, with whatever conditions and limitations the creating State has attached." Id., at 592. Thus, in wrongful-death actions involving fatalities in territorial waters, state statutes provided the standard of liability as well as the remedial regime. Because the Florida Supreme Court had previously held that Florida's wrongful-death statute did not encompass unseaworthiness as a basis of liability, the Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of Moragne's unseaworthiness claim. See Moragne, 398 U. S., at 377.

The Court acknowledged in Moragne that The Tungus had led to considerable uncertainty over the role state law should play in remedying deaths in territorial waters, but concluded that "the primary source of the confusion is not to be found in The Tungus, but in The Harrisburg." 398 U. S., at 378. Upon reexamining the soundness of The Harrisburg, we decided that its holding, "somewhat dubious even when rendered, is such an unjustifiable anomaly in the present maritime law that it should no longer be followed." 398 U. S., at 378. Accordingly, the Court overruled The Harrisburg and held that an action "lie[s] under general maritime law for death caused by violation of maritime duties." 398 U. S., at 409.

IV

Yamaha argues that Moragne—despite its focus on "maritime duties" owed to maritime workers—covers the waters, creating a uniform federal maritime remedy for all deaths occurring in state territorial waters, and ousting all previously available state remedies. In Yamaha's view, state remedies can no longer supplement general maritime law

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