Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham

Background

A company operating an oil platform used a helicopter about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast. The helicopter crashed, killing the pilot and three passengers. Widows sued, and the trial court found the company negligent and awarded damages for the families’ pecuniary losses. The court valued “loss of society” but said the law did not allow recovery for it. The Court of Appeals allowed loss-of-society damages, and the Supreme Court took up that single issue.

Reasoning

The central question was whether survivors of deaths on the high seas can recover non‑pecuniary damages like loss of society in addition to statutory awards. The Court reviewed history: an 1886 rule denied admiralty wrongful-death remedies without statute; Congress then passed the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA) in 1920, which provides recovery for pecuniary loss. The Court contrasted DOHSA with later cases that allowed loss-of-society awards in coastal waters and concluded that Congress’s DOHSA governs deaths on the high seas, limiting recovery to pecuniary loss. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals.

Real world impact

As a result, families of people who die beyond state territorial waters (for example, offshore workers or passengers) are restricted to pecuniary damages under DOHSA and cannot recover separate awards for loss of society. The ruling creates a clear line between damages available on the high seas and those available within territorial waters.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Marshall, joined by Justice Blackmun, dissented, arguing that Moragne and Gaudet support allowing loss-of-society awards and that DOHSA’s history does not clearly bar nonpecuniary recovery.