Yamaha Motor Corp., U. S. A. v. Calhoun, 516 U.S. 199, 14 (1996)

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212

YAMAHA MOTOR CORP., U. S. A. v. CALHOUN

Opinion of the Court

case in Moragne itself), the survivors could not proceed under that generous standard of liability. See The Tungus, 358 U. S., at 592-593.

Second, we explained in Moragne that "identical breaches of the duty to provide a seaworthy ship, resulting in death, produce liability outside the three-mile limit . . . but not within the territorial waters of a State whose local statute excludes unseaworthiness claims." 398 U. S., at 395. This occurred because survivors of a maritime worker killed on the high seas could sue for wrongful death under the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), 46 U. S. C. App. § 761 et seq. (1988 ed.), which encompasses unseaworthiness as a basis of liability. Moragne, 398 U. S., at 395 (citing Kernan v. American Dredging Co., 355 U. S. 426, 430, n. 4 (1958)).

Finally, we pointed out that "a true seaman [a member of a ship's company] . . . is provided no remedy for death caused by unseaworthiness within territorial waters, while a long-shoreman, to whom the duty of seaworthiness was extended only because he performs work traditionally done by seamen, does have such a remedy when allowed by a state statute." 398 U. S., at 395-396. This anomaly stemmed from the Court's rulings in Lindgren v. United States, 281 U. S. 38 (1930), and Gillespie v. United States Steel Corp., 379 U. S. 148 (1964), that the Jones Act, 46 U. S. C. App. § 688 (1988 ed.), which provides only a negligence-based claim for the wrongful death of seamen, precludes any state remedy, even one accommodating unseaworthiness. As a result, at the time Moragne was decided, the survivors of a longshore worker killed in the territorial waters of a State whose wrongful-death statute incorporated unseaworthiness could sue under that theory, but the survivors of a similarly situated seaman could not.9

9 As noted earlier, unseaworthiness recovery by longshore workers was terminated by Congress in its 1972 amendments to the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U. S. C. § 901 et seq. See § 905(b).

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