A couple of items today from Maritime law.
First, a Federal Court in Louisiana has determined that a state law that denies a remedy to the heirs of a deceased person in a wrongful death action, must fail in favor of general maritime law. In The Matter of Antill Pipeline Construction, Co., Inc. (E.D. La. 12/5/2011), the Petitioner in a Limitation of Liability Act sought to apply a Louisiana Statute, La. Rev. Stat. sec. 9:2798.4, which prohibits recovery by a deceased's estate when the deceased watercraft operator had a blood alcohol concentration over 0.08% and other conditions. The Court ruled that the Louisiana law's contributory negligence scheme (i.e. a scheme that would prevent recovery if the deceased is found 25% negligent as a result of the BAC level), conflicted with the comparative fault scheme of general maritime law. In general, under "comparative fault" a party is not excluded from recovery even if found to be at fault. Rather, recovery is reduced by the level of fault. In other words, the Louisiana law would work as an improper contributory negligence bar to recovery in a maritime wrongful death case, which is to be governed under comparative negligence as matter of the general maritime law.
Our second matter today, answers the question of how much one tooth is worth. And, apparently the answer is $2,500.00. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, in Delancy v. U.S. Seafoods, LLC, (W.D. Wash. 12/14/11), awarded a Jones Act claimant $2,500.00 for the loss of one tooth and several weeks of pain after the loss of a tooth after a fall from a ladder by the seaman. The amount awarded was substantially less than the $45,000.00 sought by the seaman.
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