## Facts

- Mobil Oil used a helicopter to support offshore oil drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles from the Louisiana shore.
- The helicopter crashed outside Louisiana’s territorial waters, killing the pilot and three passengers.
- The passengers’ survivors sued in federal court under admiralty jurisdiction, alleging Mobil’s negligence caused the deaths.
- The district court found Mobil negligent and awarded damages for the families’ pecuniary losses.
- Although the district court assigned monetary values to the families’ loss of society, it denied recovery for that category, concluding it was not authorized.
- The Court of Appeals held that survivors could also recover loss-of-society damages under general maritime law in addition to damages under the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA).

## Issues

1. Whether, in a wrongful-death action for deaths occurring on the high seas governed by DOHSA, survivors may recover nonpecuniary damages (loss of society) under general maritime law in addition to DOHSA’s pecuniary-loss remedy.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and remanded.
- DOHSA governs the measure of damages for wrongful deaths on the high seas and limits recovery to survivors’ pecuniary losses.
- Survivors may not obtain additional loss-of-society damages by invoking general maritime law where Congress has expressly limited damages in DOHSA.
- The Court distinguished judicial gap-filling in maritime law from judicial alteration of express statutory choices; perceived shortcomings in DOHSA’s remedial scope are for Congress to address.

## Legal Principles

- For deaths “on the high seas” within DOHSA’s reach, DOHSA supplies the controlling wrongful-death remedy and measure of damages.
- DOHSA limits recovery to beneficiaries’ pecuniary losses; nonpecuniary damages such as loss of society are unavailable.
- General maritime law may fill gaps left by Congress but may not contradict or expand damages where Congress has specifically legislated.
- Courts may not “supplement” an express statutory damages limitation in a way that effectively rewrites the statute.

## Conclusion

The Court held that DOHSA’s pecuniary-loss limitation controls wrongful-death damages for high-seas fatalities, so survivors cannot recover loss-of-society damages under general maritime law in addition to the statutory remedy.


Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham, 436 U.S. 618 (1978)