Maintenance and Cure Claims under Maritime Law
Learn How to Get the Highest Maintenance Payment Possible if You Were Injured or Became Ill While a Crew Member of a Ship
Maritime Law grants seamen the right to bring an admiralty claim for “maintenance and cure” for injuries and sicknesses suffered while a crew member.
Maintenance and cure are ancient remedies, having been “firmly established in the maritime law long before recognition of the distinction between tort and contract.”
An injured seaman’s right to maintenance and cure is also broad. Indeed, in Farrell v. United States, 336 U.S. 511 (1949), the U.S. Supreme Court held:
It has been the merit of the seamen’s right to maintenance and cure that it is so inclusive as to be relatively simple, and can be understood and administered without technical considerations. It has few exceptions or conditions to stir contentions, cause delays, and invite litigations.
Despite these statements by the courts, disputes between ship owners and injured seamen often arise over:
- The entitlement to maintenance and cure
- The duration of maintenance and cure payments
- The correct maintenance rates
This article explains your right to maintenance and cure as an injured seaman and what evidence you need to get the highest maintenance calculation possible for as long as you are disabled.
Keep reading to learn more.
And call us at (804) 251-1620 or (757) 810-5614 or complete the online contact form if you want a consultation with a maritime injury lawyer familiar with the tort, negligence, and workers compensation laws potentially applicable to your case.
We are ready to help you win.
What is the Definition of Maintenance and Cure in a Maritime Injury Case?
Although often lumped (and paid) together, the terms “maintenance” and “cure” are two separate concepts.
What is Maintenance?
Maintenance is the payment by a ship owner to a seaman for the seaman’s living expenses (food and lodging) when he is ashore due to illness or accident.
The rationale for maintenance payments is that a seaman would receive room and board during the voyage, but now he must pay for these costs while off the ship.
What is Cure?
In admiralty law, “cure” is the payment of reasonable and necessary medical expenses incurred in treating the seaman’s injury or illness.
What is the Origin of the Duty of Maintenance and Cure?
A ship owner’s duty to provide maintenance and cure is ancient, deriving from medieval maritime codes.
But it was first introduced into American admiralty law in Harden v. Gordon, 11 F. Cas. 480, 482-83 (C.C.D. Me. 1823) (No. 6,047), which stated:
Seamen are by the peculiarity of their lives liable to sudden sickness from change of climate, exposure to perils, and exhausting labour. They are generally poor and friendless, and acquire habits of gross indulgence, carelessness, and improvidence. If some provision be not made for them in sickness at the expense of the ship, they must often in foreign ports suffer the accumulated evils of disease, and poverty, and sometimes perish from the want of suitable nourishment…. If these expenses are a charge upon the ship, the interest of the owner will be immediately connected with that of the seamen. The master will watch over their health with vigilance and fidelity…. Even the merchant himself derives an ultimate benefit from what may seem at first an onerous charge. It encourages seamen to engage in perilous voyages with more promptitude, and at lower wages. It diminishes the temptation to plunderage upon the approach of sickness; and urges the seamen to encounter hazards in the ship’s service, from which they might otherwise be disposed to withdraw.
Then the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the duty of maintenance and cure in The Osceola, 189 U.S. 158 (1903), holding:
Upon a full review … of English and American authorities upon these questions, we think the law may be considered as settled upon the following propositions:
1. That the vessel and her owners are liable, in case a seaman falls sick, or is wounded, in the service of the ship, to the extent of his maintenance and cure, and to his wages, at least so long as the voyage is continued.
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4. That the seaman is not allowed to recover a indemnity for the negligence of the master, or any member of the crew, but is entitled to maintenance and cure, whether the injuries were received by negligence or accident.
Yes.
An employer must pay maintenance and cure to a seaman for an injury or illness that manifests during the voyage, even if the seaman’s employment is not the cause of the condition.
Usually courts find that an injury or illness manifests when you start to show symptoms.
But at least one federal circuit court has extended the scope of maintenance and cure to situations where a seaman presents medical evidence that an illness from which he is now suffering existed during a period of employment but was asymptomatic.
Will the Court Award Maintenance and Cure When the Seaman Has a Pre-Existing Injury or Illness?
Yes, a seaman can recover maintenance and cure payments for a pre-existing injury or illness that disabled him during the voyage.
But there are two exceptions.
First, the general rule is that a seaman must disclose a past illness or injury when he believes the ship owner would consider the knowledge of the condition essential.
A ship owner, therefore, may argue that a seaman knew his medical history was important and should have disclosed it to the ship owner.
Second, a ship owner may require a seaman to submit to a pre-employment physical (medical examination).
During this pre-employment medical exam, the intentional concealment of a pre-existing condition or past injury from the ship owner may bar the seaman from recovering maintenance and cure.
Can a Seaman Recover Maintenance and Cure for Sickness or Injury Occurring During Shore Leave?
Yes, an employer’s responsibility for maintenance and cure extends to illnesses and injuries occurring when a seaman is on shore leave though the seaman has no duty to perform for the ship.
In Aguilar v. Standard Oil Co., 318 U.S. 724 (1943), the U.S. Supreme Court provided the rationale for extending maintenance and cure to sickness and injury incurred anywhere while the seaman is subject to the call of duty.
To summarize –
- A shipowner must pay maintenance and cure for injuries incurred on shore leave because the seaman would not have encountered the hazard but for the voyage. Indeed, the ship’s business subjects the seaman to the risks related to relaxation in strange surroundings such as distant and unfamiliar ports.
- In addition, the typical uses and purposes of shore leave are more than just personal. Instead, shore leave is necessary for sailing ships because it permits relaxation, which increases efficiency and discipline on board.
- Further, the voyage separates the seaman from home and his usual places of association. Adding this factor to the restrictions of living and working aboard forges “dual and unique compulsions for seeking relief wherever” the seaman may find it.
When Do Maintenance and Cure Payments Start?
A ship owner must provide maintenance and cure at the onset of the sickness or injury, not only after a court holds the ship owner liable.
An employer pays maintenance weekly when an injured seaman’s regular wages stop due to an injury or disease.
When Does Maintenance and Cure End?
A sick or injured seaman’s right to maintenance and cure is more certain but also limited in its benefits.
A ship owner must pay maintenance and cure until the seaman reaches maximum medical recovery (MMR).
However, this duty ends when a seaman reaches the point of maximum medical recovery (similar to the concept of maximum medical improvement (MMI) in workers compensation).
You have obtained maximum medical recovery when treating physicians declare you have healed entirely or that your condition is permanent and incurable.
Courts have held that an injured cannot hold a ship permanently liable for a pension. Nor does a ship owner have to pay a lump sum to offset permanent disability for the rest of a seaman’s life.
Whether an ill or injured seaman has reached maximum medical recovery is a frequent dispute in maintenance and cure actions.
For example, courts must grapple with whether a seaman has reached MMR when –
- A lumbar spinal fusion or a total joint replacement may help with osteoarthritis in the future or
- Palliative medical care will reduce pain and increase function after an orthopedic injury, such as a fracture, has healed
This issue will become a hot spot for litigation as medicine evolves.
In most federal circuits, the employer bears the burden of proving that a seaman has reached maximum medical recovery.
Does Fault Matter in Admiralty Claims for Maintenance and Cure?
Usually not.
A ship owner must pay maintenance and cure regardless of negligence or culpability.
And generally, the seaman’s fault will not bar recovery for maintenance and cure.
Indeed, in Aguilar v. Standard Oil Co., 318 U.S. 724, 731 (1943), the U.S. Supreme Court stated the rule in maintenance and cure lawsuits as follows:
Conceptions of contributory negligence, the fellow-servant doctrine, and assumption of risk have no place in the liability or defense against it [maintenance and cure benefits]. Only some wilful misbehavior or deliberate act of indiscretion suffices to deprive the seaman of his protection.
A ship owner, therefore, can only avoid paying maintenance and cure to an injured seaman by proving that the seaman’s behavior was “some positively vicious conduct.”
Such conduct includes gross negligence, willful disobedience of orders, insubordination, and intoxication or substance abuse (sometimes, but not always).
Calculating Maintenance Rates under Maritime Law
Maintenance’s purpose is to provide for the cost of food and lodging comparable in quality to what the seaman would have had on board.
In the past, many courts awarded a seaman $8 a day as maintenance.
Over time, however, many seamen became members of labor unions. And the union contracts often specify a maintenance rate.
Generally (but not always) courts will uphold the validity of the maintenance rate in the union contract.
If a union agreement does not apply, the seaman should present evidence (including his testimony) of the actual food and lodging costs.
For example, a seaman should offer proof of expenses such as the following:
- Food
- Lodging (mortgage or rent)
- Utilities (electricity, water, gas, telephone, internet)
- Gas and oil for transportation
- Homeowners’ insurance (or renters’ insurance)
- Laundry
- Toiletries
- Auto insurance
- Property taxes
The court’s maintenance award will depend on the evidence and the nature of the expenses.
Maintenance awards vary. For example, some courts have awarded more than $50 per day when the injured seaman owned a home and had a mortgage. The typical award, however, ranges from $12 to $35 per day.
What Damages are Available When an Employer Fails to Provide Maintenance and Cure?
The damages a seaman can recover from an employer that fails to pay maintenance and cure voluntarily depends on the strength of the employer’s defenses.
An employer’s wrongful failure to provide maintenance and cure can be divided into three categories.
First, if the ship owner’s failure to pay the benefits was wrong but without negligence, the ship owner is liable only for the unpaid maintenance and cure. The general rule is that a failure to pay maintenance and cure due to an injured seaman is reasonable if a diligent investigation indicates the seaman’s claim is illegitimate or if the seaman does not submit medical records to the ship owner.
Second, a ship owner must pay compensatory damages if the fact finder (judge or jury) determines it acted unreasonably in failing to pay maintenance and cure.
Compensatory damages include monies for worsening of the illness or injury due to the ship owner’s failure to provide cure, costs associated with finding other medical care, and pain and suffering.
Third, a ship owner can be held liable for punitive damages and attorney fees if its failure to pay maintenance and cure was so unreasonable as to be arbitrary, indifferent, or callous.
Do I Get to Choose My Doctor under Maritime Law?
Yes.
The right to cure includes the payment of reasonable and necessary medical treatment rendered by a physician of your choice.
Can a Seaman Bring Other Maritime Law or Statutory Causes of Action if He Claims Maintenance and Cure Benefits?
Yes.
Traditionally maintenance and cure and unearned wages were the only legal remedies for ill or injured seamen.
But now there are several causes of action available.
For example, you can join an admiralty claim for maintenance and cure with Jones Act (negligence) and unseaworthiness claims. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court has stated that maintenance and cure “is not the only resource of the injured seaman. In an appropriate case he may obtain indemnity or compensation for injury due to negligence or unseaworthiness and may recover, by trial before court and jury, damages for partial or total disability.”
But if these claims arise from the same maritime accident and you seek a jury trial under the Jones Act, you must also put your maintenance and cure claim to the jury.
High-Quality Lawyer to Help You Get Maintenance and Cure Benefits
You may qualify for maintenance and cure benefits if you are a crew member on a ship or work offshore who has sustained an injury or developed an illness.
Call now to get started with your maintenance and cure claim.
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