## Facts

- Edgar L. Townsend, a seaman and crew member aboard the Motor Tug *Thomas*, fell on the steel deck and injured his arm and shoulder while serving the vessel.
- Townsend sought “maintenance and cure,” the shipowner’s maritime-law duty to provide food, lodging, and medical care to an injured seaman.
- Atlantic Sounding allegedly refused to provide maintenance and cure.
- Atlantic Sounding filed a federal declaratory judgment action seeking a ruling on its obligations.
- Townsend filed claims under the Jones Act and general maritime law, alleging negligence, unseaworthiness, wrongful termination, and an arbitrary and willful refusal to pay maintenance and cure.
- Townsend asserted counterclaims seeking punitive damages for the willful denial of maintenance and cure.

## Issues

1. Whether general maritime law permits punitive damages for an employer’s willful and wanton failure to pay maintenance and cure.
2. Whether the Jones Act or *Miles v. Apex Marine Corp.* limits remedies for maintenance and cure so as to bar punitive damages.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the Eleventh Circuit and remanded for further proceedings.
- Punitive damages have long been an accepted remedy at common law and within maritime law for willful or outrageous misconduct.
- That historical availability extends to maintenance and cure; maritime cases have awarded punitive damages for egregious failures to provide adequate medical care.
- Neither the Jones Act nor *Miles* eliminated punitive damages for maintenance and cure; *Miles* addressed wrongful-death remedies and did not purport to remove preexisting maritime personal-injury remedies.
- Absent clear congressional intent, statutes are not read to displace longstanding admiralty remedies; no such intent appeared in the Jones Act.

## Legal Principles

- A seaman may recover punitive damages under general maritime law for an employer’s willful and wanton failure to pay maintenance and cure.
- Longstanding maritime remedies remain available unless Congress clearly abrogates them.
- *Miles v. Apex Marine Corp.* does not bar punitive damages in maintenance and cure actions because it addressed uniformity in wrongful-death damages, not the maintenance-and-cure remedy.
- The Jones Act creates a negligence action for seamen but does not, by its terms, eliminate punitive damages for maintenance and cure.

## Conclusion

Punitive damages remain available in maintenance and cure actions when an employer willfully and wantonly refuses to meet that maritime obligation, and neither the Jones Act nor *Miles* restricts the remedy.


Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404 (2009)