Philomena Dooley, Personal Representative of the Estate of Cecelio Chuapoco, et al. v. Korean Air Lines Co., LTD. (524 U.S. 116)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 8, 1998 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 524 U.S. 116 · 118 S. Ct. 1890
- Decided
- June 8, 1998
- Term
- October Term 1997
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. In a case of death on the high seas, the Death on the High Seas Act, 46 U. S. C. App. § 761 et seq., allows certain relatives of the decedent to sue for their pecuniary losses, but does not authorize recovery for the decedent’s pre-death pain and suffering. This ease presents the question whether those relatives may nevertheless recover such damages through a survival action under general maritime law. We hold that they may not. I On September 1, 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight KE007, en route from Anchorage, Alaska, to Seoul, South Korea, strayed into the airspace of the former Soviet Union and was shot down over the Sea of Japan. All 269 people on board were killed. Petitioners, the personal representatives of three of the passengers, brought lawsuits against respondent Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd. (KAL), in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. These cases were consolidated in that court, along with the other federal actions arising out of the crash. After trial, a jury found that KAL had committed “willful misconduct,” thus removing the Warsaw Convention’s $75,000 cap on damages, and in a subsequent verdict awarded $50 million in punitive damages. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the finding of willful misconduct, but vacated the punitive damages award on the ground…
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