Calhoun v. Yamaha Motor Corp., USA

40 F. Supp. 2d 288, 1999 A.M.C. 1777, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3426, 1999 WL 163617
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 19, 1999
DocketCIV. A. 90-4295
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 40 F. Supp. 2d 288 (Calhoun v. Yamaha Motor Corp., USA) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Calhoun v. Yamaha Motor Corp., USA, 40 F. Supp. 2d 288, 1999 A.M.C. 1777, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3426, 1999 WL 163617 (E.D. Pa. 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

POLLAK, District Judge.

This case arises from the tragic death, in the offshore waters of Puerto Rico, of Natalie Calhoun, the minor daughter of Lucien B. Calhoun and Robin L. Calhoun. In the summer of 1989, Natalie, twelve, who lived with her parents in Pennsylvania, went on a vacation trip to Puerto Rico with a friend and her friend’s parents. During their stay at a resort hotel, Natalie rented a “Wavejammer” jet ski. The Wavejam-mer hit a vessel at anchor near the beach. Natalie was killed.

Invoking Pennsylvania law, Natalie’s parents brought a combined wrongful death and survival action in this court against Yamaha Motor Company, Ltd., a Japanese corporation, which is the manufacturer of Wavejammer jet skis, and Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A., a California corporation, which is the American distributor of Wavejammers. (The defendants are hereinafter collectively referred to as “Yamaha”). The complaint alleged defects in the Wavejammer, and attributed liability to Yamaha on the basis of negligence, strict liability, and breach of implied warranties of merchantability and fitness.

Plaintiffs contended that, since the parties were of diverse citizenship, the suit should be treated as a conventional diversity action, to be tried under Pennsylvania *290 law in conformity with the requirements of the Erie doctrine. Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938); Klaxon v. Stentor Electric Manufacturing Co., Inc., 313 U.S. 487, 61 S.Ct. 1020, 85 L.Ed. 1477 (1941). Yamaha contended that, since the suit arose from an accident occurring in the territorial waters of the United States, the suit should, notwithstanding that Natalie was neither a seaman nor a longshoreman (i.e., notwithstanding that she was not a “seafarer”), be regarded as embraced by this court’s admiralty jurisdiction. More particularly, Yamaha contended that the suit should, pursuant to Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc., 398 U.S. 375, 90 S.Ct. 1772, 26 L.Ed.2d 339 (1970), be treated as a federal maritime claim. I concluded that Yamaha was correct in arguing that the Calhouns’ suit sounded not in diversity but in admiralty. Pursuant to that jurisdictional ruling, I undertook to fashion the cognizable damages claims in conformity with what I determined to be appropriate and uniform federal maritime standards. Specifically, I determined that — contrary to Yamaha’s view — the Calhouns could undertake to sue for loss of Natalie’s society, but — contrary to the Calhouns’ view — they could not sue for Natalie’s lost future earnings or for punitive damages. 1993 WL 216238, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8267 (E.D.Pa.1993). At the instance of the parties, these rulings were certified for interlocutory review, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b).

The Court of Appeals, in a detailed and closely reasoned opinion, reversed, 40 F.3d 622 (3d Cir.1994). Concluding that this court had misconstrued Moragne and other pertinent Supreme Court decisions in holding that a uniform federal remedial regime was intended to govern litigation arising out of allegedly tortious deaths of nonseafarers in territorial waters, the Court of Appeals ruled that state remedial law was to govern the Calhouns’ suit against Yamaha. However, the Court of Appeals left it to this court to determine, in the first instance, the choice-of-law question of which jurisdiction’s — i.e., Pennsylvania’s or Puerto Rico’s — remedial regime should apply. .

The Supreme Court, on certiorari, affirmed in a unanimous opinion. Yamaha Motor Corp., U.S.A. v. Calhoun, 516 U.S. 199, 116 S.Ct. 619, 133 L.Ed.2d 578 (1996). After reviewing its own major cases, including Moragne, and after careful analysis of the interplay between its cases and three major federal statutes — the Death on the High Seas Act, 46 U.S.C. § 761 et seq.; the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688 et seq.; and the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq. — the Court ruled that “Making into account what Congress sought to achieve, we preserve the application of state statutes to deaths within territorial waters.” Id. at 216, 116 S.Ct. 619. Then, said the Court, in the final paragraphs of the opinion, “[f]or the reasons stated, we hold that the damages available for the jet ski death of Natalie Calhoun are properly governed by state law.” Id.

The Court, in the opinion’s closing footnote, pointed out that “[t]he Third Circuit left for initial consideration by the District Court whether Pennsylvania’s wrongful-death remedies or Puerto Rico’s apply.” Id. at 216 n. 14,116 S.Ct. 619.

The opinion’s closing footnote also identified a related question whose disposition the Supreme Court — like the Court of Appeals — felt could be deferred (id.):

The Court of Appeals also left open, as do we, the source — federal or state — of the standards governing liability, as distinguished from the rules on remedies. We thus reserve for another day reconciliation of the maritime personal injury decisions that rejected state substantive liability standards, and the maritime wrongful-death cases in which state law has held sway. Compare Kermarec, 358 U.S., at 628 [, 79 S.Ct. 406] (personal injury); Pope & Talbot, Inc. v. Hawn, 346 U.S. 406, 409[, 74 S.Ct. 202, 98 L.Ed. 143] (1953) (same), with Hess v. United States, 361 U.S. 314, 319[, 80 S.Ct. 341, 4 *291 L.Ed.2d 305] (1960). (wrongful death); The Tungus v. Skovgaard, 358 U.S. 588, 592-594[, 79 S.Ct. 503, 3 L.Ed.2d 524] (1959) (same).

II.

As the foregoing recital explains, two questions were remitted to this court by the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. The first question is which jurisdiction’s remedial regime — that prescribed by the law of remedies of Puerto Rico or that prescribed by the law of remedies of Pennsylvania — frames the damages claims advanced by the Calhouns. The second question is whether the source of the Cal-houns’ substantive claims is federal maritime law or state law.

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Related

Calhoun v. Yamaha Motor Corp., U.S.A.
216 F.3d 338 (Third Circuit, 2000)
Calhoun v. Yamaha Motor Corp.
216 F.3d 338 (Third Circuit, 2000)

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Bluebook (online)
40 F. Supp. 2d 288, 1999 A.M.C. 1777, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3426, 1999 WL 163617, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/calhoun-v-yamaha-motor-corp-usa-paed-1999.