St. Thomas Law Review
First Page
26
Document Type
Article
Abstract
The title of the famous stage play and movie, Children of a Lesser God, comes from a stanza of Alfred Lord Tennyson's, Idylls of the King, which reads as follows, "As if some lesser god had made the world, but had not force to shape it as he would." Like Tennyson's lesser God, Congress enacted the Jones Act, but did not have the force to shape it as it was supposed to be. On the contrary, it allowed the courts to interpret, twist and abuse it to the furthest limits, well beyond even the questionable ones imposed by Miles v. Apex Marine. The consequence is that seamen, once considered the wards of the court, are still struggling to get remedies routinely enjoyed by other plaintiffs who did not have the fortune (or misfortune?) of a statute enacted to expand, not contract, their rights. This article attempts an assessment of the contemporary standing of Jones seamen, focusing on one single, specific, and very narrow issue: whether punitive damages may be awarded in seamen's claims for injuries or death caused by a ship's unseaworthiness.
Recommended Citation
Attilio M. Costabel,
Children of a Lesser Jones: Punitive Damages in Unseaworthiness,
28
St. Thomas L. Rev.
26
(2015).
Available at:
https://scholarship.stu.edu/stlr/vol28/iss1/3