## Facts

- David McCorpen, a career merchant seaman, had diabetes since 1953 requiring daily insulin and diet control.
- About eight months before joining the vessel, he passed a U.S. Public Health Service exam and was found fit for duty.
- Central Gulf Steamship Corporation hired him as third cook on the Green Lake after requiring a pre-employment physical and written medical questionnaire.
- On the form, McCorpen reported only a prior “back strain 1961,” answered “no” to illness and surgery, and signed a statement that he had never been injured, sick, or disabled except as disclosed.
- He did not disclose his diabetes during the employer’s medical inquiry.
- While the ship was abroad, he experienced double vision and symptoms during extreme galley heat; he received treatment overseas and later at a Public Health Service facility in Galveston.
- Medical evaluation resulted in hospitalization for diabetes control and diagnoses including diabetes mellitus and chronic anemia of undetermined cause.
- McCorpen sued for maintenance of $312 and sought attorneys’ fees, interest, and costs; after a bench trial, the district court denied relief based on knowing nondisclosure of a preexisting condition.
- McCorpen appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a seaman who knowingly conceals a preexisting disabling condition in response to an employer’s medical questionnaire may recover maintenance and cure when later disabled by that condition (or a related one) while in service of the vessel.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgment for the shipowner.
- The court held maintenance and cure may be denied when a seaman knowingly or fraudulently conceals a preexisting condition in the face of a specific medical inquiry.
- The court found McCorpen intentionally failed to disclose diabetes on a direct medical form that was part of the hiring process.
- The court treated the later incapacity as sufficiently related to the concealed diabetes to bar maintenance and associated relief.

## Legal Principles

- Maintenance and cure is an implied, contractual maritime obligation owed to a seaman who becomes ill or injured while in service of the vessel.
- A seaman may receive maintenance and cure even for an illness that predated employment, but recovery is denied when the seaman knowingly or fraudulently conceals the illness from the shipowner.
- An employer’s defense applies where (as reflected in the court’s reasoning): (1) the seaman intentionally conceals or misrepresents medical facts, (2) the concealed facts are material to the hiring decision as shown by a specific medical inquiry, and (3) the later illness or disability is causally connected to the concealed condition.

## Conclusion

The Fifth Circuit held that a shipowner may deny maintenance and cure when a seaman intentionally withholds a material preexisting medical condition during a pre-employment medical inquiry and the later disability is causally related to the concealed condition, and it affirmed the denial of maintenance and related relief.


McCorpen v. Cent. Gulf S.S. Corp., 396 F.2d 547 (5th Cir. 1968)