230
Opinion of the Court
have been liable if death had not ensued." 46 U. S. C. App. § 761 (1988 ed.).
The death that occurred here falls within the literal terms of this provision, and it is well established that those literal terms apply to airplane crashes. See Executive Jet Aviation, Inc. v. Cleveland, 409 U. S. 249, 263-264 (1972). Section 762 of DOHSA provides that the recovery in a suit under § 761 "shall be a fair and just compensation for the pecuniary loss sustained by the persons for whose benefit the suit is brought." 46 U. S. C. App. § 762. Thus, petitioners cannot recover loss-of-society damages under DOHSA. Moreover, where DOHSA applies, neither state law, see Off-shore Logistics, Inc. v. Tallentire, 477 U. S. 207, 232-233 (1986), nor general maritime law, see Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham, 436 U. S. 618, 625-626 (1978), can provide a basis for recovery of loss-of-society damages.4
Petitioners argue that DOHSA should not apply to this cause of action because of the concern expressed by the Second Circuit: that "a uniform law should govern Warsaw Convention cases." 43 F. 3d, at 21. They urge that, if we must look to domestic law, we should craft a federal rule of damages that will be applicable in all suits brought under the Convention. Undoubtedly it was a primary function of the Warsaw Convention to foster uniformity in the law of international air travel, see Floyd, 499 U. S., at 552, but as our discussion above has made clear, this is not an area in which the imposition of uniformity was found feasible. See supra, at 226-227. The Convention neither adopted any uniform
4 We need not consider whether § 761 of DOHSA calls into question the District Court's determination that the decedent's mother is a proper party to this suit, or its grant of a jury trial, see Romero v. International Terminal Operating Co., 358 U. S. 354, 371, n. 28 (1959), and whether § 762 contradicts the District Court's allowance of pain and suffering damages, see Offshore Logistics, Inc., 477 U. S., at 215, n. 1. KAL challenged none of these rulings in its petition for certiorari.
Page: Index Previous 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007