St. Thomas Law Review
First Page
502
Document Type
Article
Abstract
In Waiting for Godot, the masterpiece play by Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett, two friends wait expectantly for someone named Godot to arrive. The friends claim him as an acquaintance, but in fact they hardly know him, admitting that they would not recognize him were they to see him. After days of waiting in vain, they pledge to commit suicide the day after, unless of course Godot arrives. At the play's end, the audience never learns if Godot arrived or if the friends committed suicide. This narrative is strikingly similar to the saga of the homonymous Supreme Court case name Gaudet-a case that may or may not return from the vestiges of admiralty law jurisprudence. This article explores the potential of Gaudet's return; and, in doing so, it provides an up-to-date assessment of the state of the law of maritime personal injury and wrongful death remedies in the light of two co-existing, yet contradicting, Supreme Court precedents: Sea-Land Services, Inc. v. Gaudet and Miles v. Apex Marine Corp. The former case, Gaudet, is the outer limit reached by the Supreme Court in expanding the remedies available in maritime personal injury and wrongful death suits. Miles, conversely, is synonymous with the Supreme Court's limitation, if not outright negation, of those remedies. Strikingly, however, Miles distinguished Gaudet without overruling it, and Gaudet, therefore, has remained in oblivion for a long time, while Miles has enjoyed an amazing expansion far beyond its own limited holding.
Recommended Citation
Attilio M. Costabel,
Waiting for Gaudet Charting a Course after Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend,
24
St. Thomas L. Rev.
502
(2012).
Available at:
https://scholarship.stu.edu/stlr/vol24/iss3/5