Калифорнийский апелляционный суд запретил взыскивать компенсацию за потерю Consortium с работодателя морского работника

A California appeals court ruled Tuesday that the wife of a ferry worker injured on the job cannot recover loss-of-consortium damages under the Jones Act or general maritime law. In Simerley v. Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal of Lynette Simerley’s claim against the district, which employed her husband, Tracy Simerley, as a seaman on one of its ferryboats. The Simerleys sued the district in March 2025 after Mr. Simerley was injured while working aboard the vessel. Their lawsuit alleged negligence under the Jones Act, unseaworthiness and failure to provide maintenance, food and medical care. Ms. Simerley’s loss-of-consortium claim was based on allegations that the ferry, its equipment and its crew were unsafe and unseaworthy. The district argued that loss of consortium is a nonpecuniary form of damages unavailable under the Jones Act or general maritime law. A trial court sustained the district’s demurrer without allowing the Simerleys to amend the claim. The appeals court said the Jones Act, which allows seamen to sue their employers for negligence, limits recovery to pecuniary losses and does not authorize loss-of-consortium damages for nonfatal injuries. The court also rejected Ms. Simerley’s argument that the damages were independently available under general maritime law through the unseaworthiness claim. There was no clear historical pattern of courts awarding loss-of-consortium damages in personal injury cases involving unseaworthiness, the court said. Allowing the damages would also conflict with the Jones Act and the federal policy favoring uniform remedies for maritime injuries. The court said it would exceed the judiciary’s role to create a remedy that Congress did not provide under a parallel statutory claim.