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A panel of the Fifth Circuit originally held that punitive damages were available to seamen for unseaworthiness claims upon a showing of willful and wanton misconduct in connection with the unseaworthy condition. 731 F.3d 505, 517-18 (5th Cir. 2013). The Fifth Circuit panel based this holding on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Atlantic Sounding Co., Inc. v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404 (2009), which the panel interpreted as explicitly abrogating prior prohibitions against punitive damages for maintenance and cure claims under general maritime law. The panel concluded, through reliance on Townsend, that because the unseaworthiness cause of action and the punitive damages remedy pre-existed the Jones Act, then the remedy for punitive damages was available to injured seaman and the survivors of deceased seaman. “[I]f a general maritime law cause of action and remedy were established before the passage of the Jones Act, and the Jones Act did not address that cause of action or remedy, then that remedy remains available under that cause of action unless and until Congress intercedes.” 731 F.3d at 515. |