Death On the High Seas Act
... You are told that in all likelihood your recovery damages will be kept to a bare minimum by the airline because of an obscure statute called the Death On The High Seas Act. Death On The High Seas Act (to be referred to as DOHSA) was enacted in the early part of the last century. ... m) from the shore to the “high seas. ... As mentioned in the act, it limited the recovery to “pecuniary loss”, which was to be interrupted by the courts as “actual financial loss. ... It effectively stated: “Whenever the death of a person shall be caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default occurring on the high seas beyond a marine league from the shore of any State, or the District of Columbia, or the Territories or dependencies of the United States, the personal representative of the descendent may maintain a suit for damages in the district courts of the United States, in admiralty, for the exclusive benefit of the decedent’s wife, husband, parent, child or dependent relative…” “The recovery in such suit shall be fair and just compensation for the pecuniary loss sustained by the persons for whose benefit the suit if brought…” One of the obvious questions that the act raises is the actual definition of “pecuniary loss. ... S any form of compensation for accidents could be recovered through state wrongful death statutes. ... Surprisingly enough, the very principle used in drafting DOHSA is the same principle airlines are able to use for their benefit when faced with law suits involving accidents on the “high seas. ... To even further twist the metaphorical knife in high seas disasters, another ruling came out of Accord Azzopardi v. ... In this case, the definition of the “high seas” took on additional meaning as the court stated that the term ‘high seas’ “included the territorial waters of a foreign nation as long as they are more than a marine league away from any United States shore. ... DOHSA supplies the applicable United States law where an airplane crashes on the high seas and that where DOHSA applies, neither state nor general maritime law can permit recovery of loss-of-society damages. As a result of this finding, the court granted Korean Airline’s (KAL) motion to dismiss all claims made for “non-pecuniary damages…including damages for a decedent’s pre-death pain and suffering. ... In cases of wrongful death on the high seas, that law is the DOHSA. ... ” He further pointed out the “injustices” of DOHSA, namely that “victims of air crashes on the high seas are not entitled to a jury trial.” Also, “there is no right to recover punitive damages under DOHSA…Moreover, DOHSA applies to all airplane and helicopter crashes on the high seas, not just airline crashes. ... Some of the proposed changes would have removed all air crashes over the high seas from DOHSA (basically dissolving DOHSA).