Are Cruise Ships Liable for Covid Deaths?
Are cruise ships liable when a passenger contracts Covid while on board, and later dies from the illness?
A Los Angeles federal court answered no to this question in September in the case of Maa v. Carnival Corporation (Central District of California).
Mr. and Mrs. Maa set sail on a cruise in March from San Antonio, Chile. The cruise ship made several stops on its way to Miami, Florida. Towards the end of March, passengers were not allowed to disembark in ports of call, as the Covid crisis became more and more apparent. When the ship docked in Miami on April 4th, passengers were not allowed off. Mr. Maa was placed on oxygen and an ambulance eventually transported him from the ship to a hospital on shore. Mr. Maa passed away from Covid complications; his wife filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Carnival for negligence and wrongful death.
Carnival Corporation filed to have the case moved to federal court (instead of state court), alleging that the lawsuit implicated federal law, not state law. This is known in the law as “removing”, with the basic premise being that federal courts (and not state courts) should decide questions of federal law. The federal law in question is called the “Death on the High Seas Act”, or DOHSA for short.
“DOHSA” is a 1920 federal law that applies “when the death of an individual is caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default occurring on the high seas beyond three nautical miles from shore of the United States”. 46 U.S.C. §30302. Courts have interpreted this provision to refer to the site of an accident on the high seas, not to where death actually occurs or where the wrongful act causing the accident may have originated. Bergen v. F/V St. Patrick, 816 F.2d 1345 (9th Cir. 1987). DOHSA does not permit a financial recovery for the decedent’s pre-death pain and suffering.
The Court ruled that since Mr. Maa contracted Covid “while on the high seas”, the Death on the High Seas Act applies. It does not matter that decisions affecting the cruise ship route and related matters were made on shore; what matters is where Mr. Maa contracted the disease. And since this occurred beyond 3 nautical miles from shore, DOHSA applies to bar a wrongful death action.
Commentators have noted that DOHSA is 100 years old and not in step with modern wrongful death statutes. Time will tell if Congress makes changes to the law. But until then, it appears that the cruise ship industry will continue to notch up victories for the thousands of Covid-related cases that will fill the federal court docket for years to come.
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