Jones Act

“ But, also, each nation has a legitimate interest that its nationals and permanent inhabitants be not maimed or disabled from self-support. In some later American cases, courts have been prompted to apply the Jones Act by the fact that the wrongful act or omission alleged caused injury to an American citizen or domiciliary. [21] We need not, however, weigh the seaman's nationality against that of the ship, for here the two coincide without resort to fiction. Admittedly, respondent is neither citizen nor resident of the United States. ”

“ We are told, however, that the Jones Act applies by its specific terms only in the presence of the relation of employer to employee, to give the latter a remedy for the employer's negligence; and, since the effect of the General Service Agreement was to make the seaman technically an employee of the United States, the necessary result was to remit him exclusively to the Suits in Admiralty Act for remedy to enforce the substantive right given by the Jones Act. ”

“ If it is not, but a fellow servant's negligence is the cause, the seaman could not recover, [11] until the law was altered by the Jones Act.
The evil resulting from overruling earlier considered decisions must be evident. In the present case, the court below naturally felt bound to follow and apply the law as clearly announced by this court. If litigants and lower federal courts are not to do so, the law becomes not a chart to govern conduct but a game of chance; instead of settling rights and liabilities it unsettles them. ”

“ It is one which often has significance in choice of law in a contract action. But a Jones Act suit is for tort, in which respect it differs from one to enforce liability for maintenance and cure. As we have said of the latter, 'In the United States this obligation has been recognized consistently as an implied provision in contracts of marine employment. Created thus with the contract of employment, the liability, unlike that for indemnity or that later created by the Jones Act, in no sense is predicated on the fault or negligence of the shipowner.' Aguilar v. ”

“ The process of interpretation also misses its high function if a strict reading of a law results in the emasculation or deletion of a provision which a less literal reading would preserve.' The extreme harshness of the old common-law rule abating actions on the death of the tortfeasor flies in the face of the expressed congressional purpose to provide for 'the welfare of seamen.' The Jones Act 'As welfare legislation * * * is entitled to a liberal construction to accomplish its beneficent purposes.' Cosmopolitan Shipping Co. ”

“ Summary The Jones Act is a perennial issue in Congress. The Act requires that all waterborne shipping between points in the United States be carried by vessels built in the United States and owned and operated by Americans. The purpose of the Act is to ensure that the nation has a sufficient merchant marine and shipbuilding base to protect the nation's defense and commercial interests. Critics claim that the Act does not accomplish this goal and furthermore raises shipping costs, thereby making U.S. farmers and manufacturers less competitive. ”

“ This proviso, read in light of the sue-and-be-sued clause in the compact, reserves the jurisdiction of the federal courts to act in any matter arising under the compact over which they would have jurisdiction by virtue of the fact that the Mississippi is a navigable stream and that interstate commerce is involved. There is no more apt illustration of the involvement of the commerce power and the power over maritime matters than the Jones Act. ”

“ I shoud think that by allowing a remedy where one is needed, by eliminating differences not based on reason, while still leaving the underlying scheme of duties unchanged, this sense of security will not be weakened but strengthened. The policies behind stare decisis point toward ignoring Lindgren, not following it.
I cannot agree that Congress in enacting the Jones Act, designed 'to provide liberal recovery for injured workers,' intended to create the anomaly perpetuated by the Court's decision. ”

“ The Court in Lindgren reasonably concluded that the Jones Act, incorporating the standard of the FELA, supersedes and pre-empts state remedies for negligence. It correctly decided that since the wrongful death before it was 'based upon negligence alone' recovery could only be had under the Jones Act and not under the state wrongful death statute. On this precise holding, Lindgren is a valid precedent and should be followed. ”

“ This view, if sustained, would practically destroy the rights given to homesteaders and pre-emptioners by the acts of Congress, as uniformly interpreted by this court. Even after the filing of a list of selection of lands by the beneficiary under the act of Congress, Jones was entitled, of right,-prior to the actual approval by the Secretary of the proposed selections,-to apply for the lands in dispute, pay for them, get a certificate of his purchase, and in that way acquire them. ”

“ The Jones Act reads in pertinent part as follows: 'Any seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course of his employment may, at his election, maintain an action for damages at law, with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States modifying or extending the common-law right or remedy in cases of personal injury to railway employees shall apply ”

“ For the only possible basis for the doctrine which is compatible with the provisions and policy of the Jones Act is that the master is not negligent in the case of defective simple tools because the possibility of injury from such tools is so slight as to impose no duty on him to see that they are free from defects in the first instance or to inspect them thereafter. ”

“ In Parden we held that FELA authorizes suits for damages against state-owned railroads, and that by entering the business of operating a railroad a State waives its Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit in federal court. The latter holding was overruled in Welch, to accord with our more recent Eleventh Amendment jurisprudence, 483 U.S., at 478, 107 S.Ct., at 2948, but the Welch Court was explicit in declining to decide whether in the Jones Act (or in FELA) , Congress intended to create a cause of action against the States. ”

“ Nevertheless, in considering the harshness of the rule sought to be imposed under the Jones Act, we do note that advancing civilization and social progress have brought 43 of our States to include in their general law the principle of the survival of causes of action against deceased tortfeasors, and that such recovery, rather than being exceptional, has now become the rule in almost every common-law jurisdiction. ”

“ It left it to the jury to say whether petitioners had negligently failed to provide decedent with a safe appliance with which to work, and whether such failure was the proximate cause of the injury and death. The state Supreme Court sustained the judgment of the trial court upon a verdict for respondent, holding that, in the circumstances disclosed by the evidence, assumption of risk is not a defense in a suit under the Jones Act. ”

“ Mr. Justice HARLAN (dissenting) .
I am wholly in sympathy with the result reached by the Court. It is, I believe, a result that is consistent with sound judicial administration and that will greatly simplify the conduct of suits in which a claim for maintenance and cure is joined with a Jones Act claim arising out of the same set of facts.
But the rule that the Court announces is in my view entirely procedural in character, and the manner in which such rules must be promulgated has been specified by Congress in 28 U.S.C. § 2073. ”

“ There is no dearth of example of the obligation on law courts which attempt to enforce substantive rights arising from admiralty law to do so in a manner conforming to admiralty practice. Contributory negligence is not a barrier to a proceeding in admiralty or under the Jones Act, and the state courts are required to apply this rule in Jones Act actions. ”

“ Congress, in the exercise of its legislative powers, is free to say "this much and no more." An admiralty court is not free to go beyond those limits. The Jones Act and DOHSA established a policy in favor of maritime wrongful death recovery. The central issue in Moragne was whether the limits of those statutes proscribed a more general maritime cause of action. ”

“ Cf. Jenkins v. Roderick, D.C., 156 F.Supp. 299, 304-306. Should an advisory jury (with the same membership, doubtless, as the 'mandatory' one hearing the Jones Act claim) hear the unseaworthiness claim? ”

“ This is so because " [i] t is not the employee's particular job that is determinative, but the employee's connection to a vessel." Wilander, supra, 498 U.S., at ----, 111 S.Ct., at 817. By its terms the LHWCA preserves the Jones Act remedy for vessel crewmen, even if they are employed by a shipyard. A maritime worker is limited to LHWCA remedies only if no genuine issue of fact exists as to whether the worker was a seaman under the Jones Act. ”

“ Such notions, weak enough in Lauritzen, seem much weaker still in this case where the tort involved occurred in our own waters. I cannot but feel that, at least as to torts occurring within the United States, Congress knew what it was doing when it said 'any seaman' and I must dissent from today's further and, I believe, unjustifiable reduction in the scope of the Jones Act. ”

“ Congress could not have been unaware of the necessity of construction imposed upon courts by such generality of language and was well warned that in the absence of more definite directions than are contained in the Jones Act it would be applied by the courts to foreign events, foreign ships and foreign seamen only in accordance with the usual doctrine and practices of maritime law. ”

“ We can hardly suppose that Congress, while explicitly denying a right of recovery under the Jones Act to maritime workers not members of a crew who are injured on board a vessel, either thought that the Jones Act extended to injuries inflicted on shore to employees not members of a crew, see State Industrial Commission of the State of New York v. ”

“ Jones v. United States (258 U.S. 40)
Argued: and Submitted Jan. 20, 1922. --- Decided: Feb 27, 1922
This is a suit brought by the United States to recover the value of lands that it alleges it was induced to part with through the defendant's fraud. The lands concerned had been in the Siletz Indian Reservation in Oregon and had been thrown open to homestead entry by the Act of August 15, 1894, c. 290, § 15; 28 Stat. ”

“ It is clear to me that congress intended by this act to enlarge very materially the right of suit against the United States, to facilitate this right by allowing suits to be brought in the circuit and district courts where the parties resided, and that it also designed to enlarge the remedy in the court of claims to meet all such cases in law, equity, and admiralty against the United States, as would be cognizable in such courts against individuals. ”

“ The terms of re enlistment were the same as the original except in two points, namely, that it provided for a term of service in the Exploring Expedition, and for an indefinite time. Could not Congress legislate for this? They passed an act to regulate the Exploring Expedition, and the contract with Jones was in fact a contract with the United States. We say, therefore, that the chastisement which was inflicted was authorized by law. The opinion of the court below would destroy all discipline in the navy. ”

“ Pennsylvania R. Co., 350 U.S. 523, 526, 76 S.Ct. 608, 610, 100 L.Ed. 668. Since the standard of liability under the Jones Act is that established by Congress under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 51 et seq., what we said in Rogers v. ”

“ The right to relief was principally based upon the contention that the purchase by Jones under the timber and stone act was paramount to the indemnity selection previously made by the railroad company, and hence that the Land Department had fallen into an error of law in patenting the land to the company. ”