210
Opinion of the Court
(as they routinely did before Moragne), because Moragne launched a solitary federal scheme.7 Yamaha's reading of Moragne is not without force; in several contexts, we have recognized that vindication of maritime policies demanded uniform adherence to a federal rule of decision, with no leeway for variation or supplementation by state law. See, e. g., Kossick v. United Fruit Co., 365 U. S. 731, 742 (1961) (federal maritime rule validating oral contracts precluded application of state Statute of Frauds); Pope & Talbot, Inc. v. Hawn, 346 U. S. 406, 409 (1953) (admiralty's comparative negligence rule barred application of state contributory negligence rule); Garrett v. Moore-McCormack Co., 317 U. S. 239, 248-249 (1942) (federal maritime rule allocating burden of proof displaced conflicting state rule).8 In addition, Ya-7 If Moragne's wrongful-death action did not extend to nonseafarers like Natalie, one could hardly argue that Moragne displaced the state-law remedies the Calhouns seek. Lower courts have held that Moragne's wrongful-death action extends to nonseafarers. See, e. g., Sutton v. Earles, 26 F. 3d 903 (CA9 1994) (recreational boater); Wahlstrom v. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., 4 F. 3d 1084 (CA2 1993) (jet skier), cert. denied, 510 U. S. 1114 (1994). We assume, for purposes of this decision, the correctness of that position. Similarly, as in prior encounters, we assume without deciding that Moragne also provides a survival action. See Miles v. Apex Marine Corp., 498 U. S. 19, 34 (1990). The question we confront is not what Moragne added to the remedial arsenal in maritime cases, but what, if anything, it removed from admiralty's stock.
8 The federal cast of admiralty law, we have observed, means that "state law must yield to the needs of a uniform federal maritime law when this Court finds inroads on a harmonious system[,] [b]ut this limitation still leaves the States a wide scope." Romero v. International Terminal Operating Co., 358 U. S. 354, 373 (1959). Our precedent does not precisely delineate that scope. As we recently acknowledged, "[i]t would be idle to pretend that the line separating permissible from impermissible state regulation is readily discernible in our admiralty jurisprudence." American Dredging Co. v. Miller, 510 U. S. 443, 452 (1994). We attempt no grand synthesis or reconciliation of our precedent today, but confine our inquiry to the modest question whether it was Moragne's design to terminate recourse to state remedies when nonseafarers meet death in territorial waters.
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