Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock Corporation v. Celestine Garris, Administratrix of the Estate of Christopher Garris, Deceased (532 U.S. 811)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 4, 2001 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 532 U.S. 811 · 121 S. Ct. 1927
- Decided
- June 4, 2001
- Term
- October Term 2000
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Scalia
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Scaiia delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented in this ease is whether the negligent breach of a general maritime duty of care is actionable when it causes death, as it is when it causes injury. I According to the complaint that respondent filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, her son, Christopher Garris, sustained injuries on April 8, 1997, that caused hid death one day later. App. to Pet. for Cert. 53. The injuries were suffered while Garris was performing sandblasting work aboard the USNS Maj. Stephen W. Pless in the employ of Tidewater Temps, Inc., a subcontractor for Mid-Atlantic Coatings, Inc., which was in turn a subcontractor for petitioner Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock Corporation. And the injuries were caused, the complaint continued, by the negligence of petitioner and one of its other subcontractors, since dismissed from this case. Because the vessel was berthed in the navigable waters of the United States when Garris was injured, respondent invoked federal admiralty jurisdiction, U. S. Const., Art. Ill, §2, cl. 1; 28 U. S. C. §1333, and prayed for damages under general maritime law. She also asserted claims under the Virginia wrongful-death statute, Va. Code Ann. §§8.01-50 to 8.01-56 (2000). The District Court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a federal claim, for the categorical…
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