In a unanimous 8-0 opinion, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a landmark decision, Miles v. Apex Marine Corporation, 111 S.Ct 317, 59 U.S.L.W. 4001 (1990) that a non-dependant mother of a seaman suing on behalf of herself and the decedent's estate, had no cause of action under the Jones Act for loss of society. The court, in strictly construing the Jones Act, said that it did not provide guidance for determining damages. In examining the Act, it noted that when Congress created it in 1920, it applied the benefits of the Federal Employees' Act under which no pecuniary damages were allowed. Thus it said:
It would be inconsistent with our place in the Constitutional scheme were we to sanction more expansive remedies in a judicially created cause of action in which liability is without fault than Congress has allowed in cases resulting from negligence. We must conclude that there is no recovery for loss of society in the general maritime action for wrongful death of a Jones Act seaman.
Continuing on, the Miles court held that:
We will not create, under our own admiralty powers, a remedy . . . that goes well beyond the limits of Congress's ordered system of recovery for seamen's injury and death. Because [the] estate cannot recover for his lost future income under the Jones Act, it cannot do so under general maritime law.
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