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89 Tul. L. Rev. 1059 (2014-2015)

handle is hein.journals/tulr89 and id is 1137 raw text is: 





                  Amiable or Merry?
   An Update on Maritime Punitive Damages

                      Stevan C. Dittman*

I.   INTRODUCTION  ........................................................................... 1059
II.  HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ....................................................... 1061
1II. THE SUPREME COURT WEIGHS IN ON DUE PROCESS ................ 1063
IV   MILESAND  ITS W AKE ................................................................ 1069
V    MILESALTERS THE SEASCAPE OF MAINTENANCE AND
     C U RE  .......................................................................................... 1073
VI. TOWNSEND--MLESEBBS ......................................................... 1078
VII. WHAT ABOUT UNSEAWORTHINESS? .......................................... 1088
VIIL MILESSEQUEBATUR   .................................................................. 1089
IX . M LESEXPLOSUS ....................................................................... 1093
X .  M cB R vE ................................................................................... 1096
X I. CONCLUSION  .............................................................................. 1100

I.   INTRODUCTION
     Punitive damages have been a staple of the law of torts since time
immemorial, yet definitive parameters for this remedy remain subject
to a fog of uncertainty in maritime law.' In Atlantic Sounding Co. v
Townsend, the United States Supreme Court, through Justice Clarence
Thomas, asserted, Punitive damages have long been an available
remedy at common law for wanton, willful, or outrageous conduct.'2
Citing jurisprudence from the American Colonial Era, in which courts,
applying English law, permitted juries to award such damages, the
Townsend Court recognized that a jury's broad discretion to set
damages included the authority to award punitive damages when the
circumstances of the case warranted.3        Thus, even prior to the


    *   © 2015 Stevan C. Dittman. Stevan C. Dittman is a member of the firm of
Gainsburgh, Benjamin, David, Meunier & Warshauer, L.L.C. in New Orleans. He is a
graduate of Tulane University Law School, where he serves as a member of the adjunct
faculty.
    1.  Geoffrey L. Wendt, The Fog of Uncertainty Enshmuding Employer Punitve
Damage Liability Under Gnerl Mantihme Law, MAR. L. BULL., Summer 2010, insert.
    2.  557 U.S. 404,409,2009 AMC 1521, 1523 (2009).
    3.  Id, 2009 AMC at 1524.
                             1059

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