Does the Jones Act or DOHSA Apply to My Offshore Injury Claim? Seamen, Passengers, and Deaths at Sea

By the trial attorneys at Silva & Silva

Does the Jones Act or DOHSA apply to my offshore injury claim? It turns on who you are, what happened and where. The Jones Act (46 U.S.C. § 30104) covers a seaman injured in the course of employment. DOHSA, the Death on the High Seas Act (46 U.S.C. §§ 30301–30308), generally covers a death from wrongful act, neglect or default on the high seas beyond 3 nautical miles from the U.S. shore (12 for commercial aviation accidents). Injured passengers and other non-seamen aboard usually claim under general maritime negligence law.

The tracks differ in who may sue, what can be recovered, the deadlines and the court. Every statute, court decision and ticket contract quoted below was read at its official source on October 20, 2026.

Three Questions Decide Which Law Applies

• Who you are. A seaman, in the courts’ terms a member of a vessel’s crew, has the Jones Act. A passenger or visitor aboard has general maritime law. Longshore workers, harbor workers and ship repairers who are not crew are usually covered instead by the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, which excludes “a master or member of a crew of any vessel” (33 U.S.C. § 902(3)) and allows a negligence claim against a vessel (33 U.S.C. § 905(b)).
• What happened. DOHSA applies only to deaths. The Jones Act covers a seaman’s injury and, “if the seaman dies from the injury,” a claim by the seaman’s personal representative.
• Where it happened. DOHSA’s threshold is the high seas beyond 3 nautical miles from the U.S. shore, but it “does not apply to the Great Lakes or waters within the territorial limits of a State,” so a death in port or inside a state’s waters falls outside it. Florida’s boundary lies farther out off its Gulf coast (see below). The Jones Act sets no distance line.

When the Jones Act Applies: Injured Seamen

The statute reads: “A seaman injured in the course of employment or, if the seaman dies from the injury, the personal representative of the seaman may elect to bring a civil action at law, with the right of trial by jury, against the employer” (46 U.S.C. § 30104(a)). Seaman status is the threshold question; the Supreme Court’s test is in the FAQ below, and a 2022 amendment excludes certain aquaculture workers (§ 30104(b)). Two rules then shape the case:

• Railway-worker rules. The same subsection applies the federal laws for injured railway employees. Under them, a case goes to the jury when the evidence reasonably supports a finding that the employer’s negligence “played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury,” and the seaman’s own negligence “shall not bar a recovery” but reduces the damages in proportion (45 U.S.C. § 53).
• Three years. A civil action for personal injury or death “arising out of a maritime tort must be brought within 3 years after the cause of action arose” (46 U.S.C. § 30106).

General maritime law adds two claims that do not depend on proving negligence:

• Maintenance and cure: the vessel owner’s obligation “to provide food, lodging, and medical services to a seaman injured while serving the ship,” which lasts until “the maximum cure possible has been effected” and is “in no sense a function of” the owner’s “negligence or fault.”
• Unseaworthiness: the owner’s duty to furnish “a vessel and appurtenances reasonably fit for their intended use,” a duty “absolute and completely independent of” the Jones Act duty of reasonable care.

When DOHSA Applies: Deaths on the High Seas

The Death on the High Seas Act creates the claim in one sentence: “When the death of an individual is caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default occurring on the high seas beyond 3 nautical miles from the shore of the United States, the personal representative of the decedent may bring a civil action in admiralty against the person or vessel responsible” (46 U.S.C. § 30302). The rest of the statute sets the terms:

• Who benefits: “the decedent’s spouse, parent, child, or dependent relative” (§ 30302).
• What is recovered: “a fair compensation for the pecuniary loss,” meaning financial loss, which the court divides “in proportion to the loss each has sustained” (§ 30303). If the person who died was partly at fault, the recovery is reduced, not barred (§ 30304).
• Air crashes: after a commercial aviation accident on the high seas beyond 12 nautical miles, the family may also recover “damages for loss of care, comfort, and companionship,” but “punitive damages are not recoverable”; within 12 nautical miles DOHSA “does not apply” (§ 30307). Silva & Silva’s aviation accident practice handles these claims.
• Deadline: DOHSA’s own sections set none; the three-year maritime limit in § 30106 applies.

State waters and the high seas. DOHSA “does not apply to the Great Lakes or waters within the territorial limits of a State” (§ 30308(b)). That matters in Florida, whose constitution places the State’s boundary “three leagues distant from the Gulf of Mexico coastline” (Fla. Const. art. II, § 1), about 9 nautical miles out, so the exact location of a death off the Gulf coast has to be pinned down. In maritime death cases where no federal statute sets the relief and the person who died was not a seaman, longshore worker or other person engaged in a maritime trade, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Yamaha Motor Corp. v. Calhoun (1996) that state remedies “remain applicable.” Florida’s Wrongful Death Act covers deaths “occurring on navigable waters” (Fla. Stat. § 768.19) and allows damages for mental pain and suffering to a spouse, children and parents in the circumstances § 768.21 sets out. Where DOHSA does apply, it controls. Its statement that it “does not affect the law of a State regulating the right to recover for death” (§ 30308(a)) is, in the Supreme Court’s reading, “a jurisdictional saving clause” that lets state courts hear these cases, and state wrongful-death statutes “are pre-empted by DOHSA where it applies” (Offshore Logistics, Inc. v. Tallentire, 1986).

Injured Cruise Passengers and Other Non-Seamen

A passenger is not a seaman and has no Jones Act claim. Under general maritime law, the owner of a ship in navigable waters owes “to all who are on board for purposes not inimical to his legitimate interests the duty of exercising reasonable care under the circumstances of each case” (Kermarec v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, U.S. Supreme Court, 1959). When the claim is that a dangerous condition caused the injury, the federal appeals court for Florida treats notice as “a prerequisite to imposing liability”: the cruise line must “have had actual or constructive notice of the risk-creating condition,” meaning it knew or should have known of it (Carroll v. Carnival Corp., 11th Cir. 2020). The ticket, a contract, then sets the deadlines and the court. Silva & Silva’s maritime negligence practice handles these claims.

Cruise-Ticket Notice and Lawsuit Deadlines

A ticket can shorten the three-year maritime deadline, but only to a floor. Under 46 U.S.C. § 30526 (numbered § 30508 until a December 2022 renumbering), the owner, master, manager or agent of a seagoing vessel carrying passengers between U.S. ports, or between a U.S. port and a foreign port, “may not limit by regulation, contract, or otherwise” the time to give notice of a personal injury or death claim to less than 6 months after the injury or death, or the time to sue to less than one year. For covered small passenger vessels, both floors are two years.

We read the ticket contracts posted by three large Miami-based lines, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, on October 20, 2026. All three sit close to those floors: written notice within 185 days or six months, suit within one year and, for Carnival and Royal Caribbean, service of the lawsuit within 120 days after filing. Other tickets and later versions can differ, so the ticket itself is read first.

Missing the notice deadline is not always fatal. Failing to give contractual notice “is not a bar to recovery” if the court finds the owner, master or agent knew of the injury or death and the owner was not prejudiced, if there was a satisfactory reason the notice could not be given, or if the owner does not object (§ 30526(c)). For a minor, a mentally incompetent claimant or a wrongful-death claim, a contract’s notice period is tolled until a legal representative is appointed or 3 years pass, whichever is earlier (§ 30526(d)). Neither provision extends the deadline to sue.

The ticket usually names the court too. The U.S. Supreme Court enforced a cruise ticket’s forum-selection clause in Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc. v. Shute (1991), noting that such clauses “are subject to judicial scrutiny for fundamental fairness.” The three contracts we read each pick the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, with a Miami-Dade County court as the fallback when the federal court lacks jurisdiction. That pattern is common among the Miami-based lines, but the contract that came with your ticket governs.

Where These Cases Are Heard

Federal district courts have original jurisdiction over “[a]ny civil case of admiralty or maritime jurisdiction, saving to suitors in all cases all other remedies to which they are otherwise entitled” (28 U.S.C. § 1333). That saving clause is why many maritime injury claims can also be filed in state court.

• Jones Act: federal or state court, with “the right of trial by jury.”
• DOHSA: “a civil action in admiralty.” In federal court, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure “do not create a right to a jury trial” on an admiralty claim (Rule 38(e)), so a judge ordinarily decides it; state courts can also hear DOHSA claims, applying DOHSA.
• Passenger claims: wherever the ticket’s forum clause sends them, if the clause is enforced.

What an Injured Worker or a Family Should Do Now

• Keep the papers that set the deadlines: the ticket contract for a passenger; the employment contract, pay records and proof of time spent aboard for a worker.
• Get the incident report and note the vessel, the date, the time and how far from shore it happened.
• Collect medical records and bills from the ship’s medical staff and any hospital in port.
• Save witnesses’ names, photos and messages with the cruise line or the employer.
• Calendar the deadlines. A ticket’s notice period can end about six months after the injury; the general maritime limit is three years. After a death, a personal representative brings the claim, so start that appointment early.

A free consultation can sort out which track your case is on and which deadline comes first.

Frequently asked questions

Who counts as a seaman under the Jones Act?

The Jones Act has no general definition of “seaman.” Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s test in Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis (1995), the worker’s duties “must contribute to the function of the vessel or to the accomplishment of its mission,” and the worker needs a connection to a vessel in navigation (or an identifiable group of vessels) “substantial in terms of both its duration and its nature.” Less than about 30 percent of work time in a vessel’s service ordinarily is not enough.

How far offshore does DOHSA apply?

DOHSA covers a death caused by a wrongful act, neglect or default “on the high seas beyond 3 nautical miles from the shore of the United States” (§ 30302), or beyond 12 nautical miles after a commercial aviation accident (§ 30307(c)). It does not apply on the Great Lakes or in “waters within the territorial limits of a State” (§ 30308(b)). Florida’s boundary runs three leagues, about 9 nautical miles, off its Gulf coast, so the exact location of a death there matters.

Can a cruise ship passenger sue under the Jones Act?

No. The Jones Act covers “a seaman injured in the course of employment” and runs “against the employer” (§ 30104); a passenger is not a seaman, and the cruise line is not the passenger’s employer. A passenger’s injury claim usually rests on general maritime law’s duty of “reasonable care under the circumstances of each case,” with deadlines and a court set by the ticket. If a passenger dies on the high seas outside state waters, DOHSA generally governs.

How long do I have to file a Jones Act claim?

Three years in most cases. A civil action for personal injury or death “arising out of a maritime tort must be brought within 3 years after the cause of action arose” (46 U.S.C. § 30106), and the railway-worker law the Jones Act borrows also allows three years (45 U.S.C. § 56). Waiting still costs evidence: logbooks, crew statements and medical records are easiest to gather early.

What does DOHSA let a family recover?

DOHSA allows “a fair compensation for the pecuniary loss,” meaning financial loss, which the court divides among the spouse, parents, children and dependent relatives “in proportion to the loss each has sustained” (§§ 30302–30303); the personal representative brings the case. Grief and loss of companionship are outside that measure, except after a commercial aviation accident beyond 12 nautical miles, where “loss of care, comfort, and companionship” is recoverable but punitive damages are not (§ 30307).

Talk With Silva & Silva About an Offshore Injury or Death

Silva & Silva is a Coral Gables trial firm that represents clients across Florida in maritime injury and death cases and aviation accident cases, and it prepares every case for trial from day one. If you were hurt working on a vessel or on a cruise, or lost a family member at sea, the consultation is free and there are no fees unless we recover. Contact us or call 305-445-0011; we serve clients in English and Spanish.