Fifth Circuit’s Denial of Punitive Damages to Seamen in McBride Stands as Law of the Circuit

Case: McBride v. Estis Well Serv., L.L.C.
United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (en banc).
768 F.3d 382 (5th Cir. La. 2014).

On May 18, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari in McBride, et al. v. Estis Well Services, LLC. As reported in a previous edition of the Update, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, sitting en banc, had held, in a 9 to 6 decision, that punitive damages are not available for a Jones Act seaman. The majority opinion noted that when Congress enacted the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 30104, in 1920, it incorporated the remedy afforded to workers bringing suit under Federal Employers’ Liability Act, which limited recoverable damages to pecuniary losses. The majority thus reasoned that punitive damages, which are not pecuniary in nature, were not available for the plaintiffs’ Jones Act claims. The majority further held that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Miles v. Apex Marine Corp, 498 U.S. 19 (U.S. 1990), which limited the survivors to recovery of pecuniary losses, was “on all fours” with the facts of McBride. The Fifth Circuit rejected arguments that Miles (a wrongful death case) was inapplicable to the nonfatal personal injury plaintiffs and that punitive damages are a subset of pecuniary damages.

The dissent had opined that because punitive damages were available under general maritime law before the passage of the Jones Act, and because the Jones Act does not address unseaworthiness or limit its remedies, punitive damages should remain available to seamen, which presumably was the basis for Plaintiff’s writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court. The Court’s denial of the writ leaves in tact the Fifth Circuit’s denial of punitive damages to seamen.