The Death on the High Seas Act: What a Family Can — and Cannot — Recover When a Worker Dies Offshore

The Short Answer

The Death on the High Seas Act, or DOHSA, is the wrongful-death statute that usually governs when a person is killed by wrongful conduct on the high seas — defined as beyond three nautical miles from the shore of the United States (46 U.S.C. § 30302). For the families of offshore workers, it is both the door to a federal claim and a harsh limit on what that claim is worth. DOHSA created a wrongful-death remedy where general maritime law historically provided none. But it allows recovery only for pecuniary loss — financial losses — and the Supreme Court has held that DOHSA's remedy is exclusive on the high seas. That means no recovery for grief, no recovery for the loss of a spouse's or parent's society and companionship, and no recovery for the decedent's pre-death pain and suffering.

Because the statute is so restrictive, the most important questions in a high-seas death case are often whether DOHSA applies at all and whether another body of law can supply the damages DOHSA withholds. Where the death occurred, what kind of structure or vessel was involved, and whether the worker was a seaman can each change the answer — and can be the difference between a recovery limited to lost financial support and one that reaches the full human loss.

DOHSA at a Glance

• When it applies. Death caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default occurring on the high seas beyond three nautical miles from U.S. shore (46 U.S.C. § 30302).
• Who brings it. The personal representative of the decedent, for the exclusive benefit of the spouse, parent, child, or dependent relative.
• What it allows. "Fair compensation for the pecuniary loss" sustained by the beneficiaries, apportioned among them by the court (46 U.S.C. § 30303).
• What it bars. Non-pecuniary damages — no loss of society or companionship, no grief, no recovery for the decedent's pre-death pain and suffering (subject to a narrow survival substitution).
• It is exclusive. On the high seas, DOHSA preempts state wrongful-death statutes and cannot be supplemented by general maritime law to add non-pecuniary damages.
• Situs is where the accident happened. The three-mile line is measured by where the wrongful act/accident occurred, not where the victim ultimately died.
• Aviation carve-out. For commercial aviation deaths beyond twelve nautical miles, non-pecuniary damages are recoverable; within twelve miles, DOHSA does not apply at all (46 U.S.C. § 30307).

When DOHSA Applies — the Three-Nautical-Mile Line

DOHSA reaches a death only if the wrongful act occurred on the high seas beyond three nautical miles from shore (46 U.S.C. § 30302). That boundary is decisive, because it determines which body of law supplies the damages. Courts measure the situs by where the accident or wrongful act occurred, not where the worker eventually died. A worker fatally injured beyond three miles who is brought ashore and dies in a hospital is still within DOHSA; the location of death does not move the case out of the statute.

The corollary is just as important. If the wrongful act occurred within three nautical miles — in state territorial waters — DOHSA does not apply, and the family may instead proceed under state wrongful-death law or general maritime law, both of which can allow the non-pecuniary damages DOHSA forbids. Establishing exactly where the fatal event occurred is therefore not a technicality; it is frequently the single most consequential fact in the case.

What DOHSA Allows: Pecuniary Loss Only

DOHSA limits recovery to "fair compensation for the pecuniary loss sustained" by the beneficiaries (46 U.S.C. § 30303). Pecuniary loss is financial loss — the economic benefits the beneficiaries would have received had the worker lived. The Supreme Court has held the statute's remedy is exclusive on the high seas: in Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham, the Court refused to let general maritime law add loss-of-society damages on top of DOHSA, and in Dooley v. Korean Air Lines Co., it held there is no separate recovery for the decedent's pre-death pain and suffering beyond what DOHSA provides. In Offshore Logistics, Inc. v. Tallentire, the Court held DOHSA preempts state wrongful-death statutes for deaths on the high seas. The result is a uniform — and narrow — measure of recovery.

What this excludes matters enormously to a grieving family:

• No loss of society or companionship — the lost relationship, guidance, and companionship of the spouse or parent is not compensable under DOHSA.
• No grief or mental anguish of the survivors.
• No pre-death pain and suffering of the decedent, except through the narrow survival substitution in § 30305 (which applies only where the worker's own personal-injury action was already pending when death occurred).

It is a statute that compensates the loss of a paycheck and the loss of services, not the loss of a person. That gap is precisely why the analysis so often turns to whether DOHSA can be avoided.

Who Can Recover

A DOHSA action is brought by the personal representative of the decedent, for the exclusive benefit of the decedent's spouse, parent, child, or dependent relative (46 U.S.C. § 30302). The court apportions the recovery among the eligible beneficiaries in proportion to the loss each sustained (§ 30303). Beneficiaries outside those categories generally cannot recover, which makes the family structure and the dependents' actual financial reliance on the worker central to the claim.

Maximizing the Pecuniary Recovery

Even within DOHSA's limits, "pecuniary loss" is broader than a simple wage calculation, and a careful presentation captures more of it. Recoverable pecuniary losses generally include:

• Loss of financial support the worker would have provided over a working life — wages, benefits, and reasonably expected increases.
• Loss of services the worker provided, including the economic value of household services, maintenance, and similar contributions.
• Loss of inheritance — the accumulations the worker would likely have built and left to the beneficiaries.
• Loss of nurture, guidance, training, and care for dependent children, which courts treat as having pecuniary value even though it overlaps with the relationship itself.
• Funeral expenses, where borne by a beneficiary.

Building these elements with economic proof — work-life expectancy, earnings trajectory, the value of services and parental guidance — is how a DOHSA recovery is made whole within the statute's boundaries.

Where the Real Fight Is: Escaping DOHSA's Limits

Because DOHSA is so restrictive, the highest-value work in many high-seas death cases is determining whether the case actually falls under DOHSA at all, or whether another regime supplies broader damages.

Deaths within three miles. If the fatal event occurred in state territorial waters — within three nautical miles — DOHSA does not apply. State wrongful-death law and general maritime law can then allow non-pecuniary damages such as loss of society. The location of the accident is the threshold question.

Deaths on fixed platforms (OCSLA). A death on a fixed platform on the Outer Continental Shelf is generally not governed by DOHSA. Under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, fixed platforms are treated as artificial islands, and OCSLA adopts the law of the adjacent state as surrogate federal law for accidents on them. Because many coastal states' wrongful-death statutes allow non-pecuniary damages, a platform death can carry a materially broader recovery than a DOHSA death on the open water nearby. Whether a worker died "on the high seas" in the DOHSA sense or on a fixed platform governed by OCSLA can therefore reshape the entire damages picture — and it is a recurring battleground in Gulf of Mexico offshore deaths.

Commercial aviation. Congress carved aviation out of DOHSA's harshest edge after high-profile crashes. For a commercial aviation death beyond twelve nautical miles, the family may recover additional non-pecuniary damages (though not punitive damages); for a death twelve miles or less from shore, DOHSA does not apply at all, leaving state or general maritime law (46 U.S.C. § 30307). This matters for helicopter and fixed-wing transport to and from offshore facilities.

DOHSA and the Jones Act

When the worker who died on the high seas was a seaman, the picture has more than one layer. The beneficiaries may have a Jones Act wrongful-death claim against the employer in addition to a DOHSA claim against the responsible person or vessel. The two coexist, but the damages limitations tend to converge: the Jones Act incorporates the pecuniary-loss framework of the FELA, and the Supreme Court's uniformity principle in Miles v. Apex Marine Corp. limits general maritime wrongful-death recovery for seamen in a way that parallels DOHSA. The practical consequence is that a seaman's death on the high seas is usually confined to pecuniary recovery across the available theories — which is exactly why the situs question, the OCSLA platform question, and the seaman-status question all get litigated hard. Each can move the case toward a regime that allows more.

When the Case Has Layered Complications

A high-seas death case rarely turns on DOHSA alone. It commonly involves a contested seaman-status finding that determines which wrongful-death theories are available, an OCSLA platform question that can pull the case out of DOHSA entirely, a foreign-flagged vessel or foreign defendant that raises jurisdiction and choice-of-law issues, or a vessel owner's limitation petition seeking to cap the recovery at the value of the vessel. When DOHSA is layered onto complications like these, the damages available depend on how the regimes interact — and small facts about where and how the death occurred can change everything.

See complex maritime cases for the firm's case history on maritime matters involving multiple doctrines at once, foreign defendants, jurisdictional fights, and offshore deaths.

In practice

In practice, DOHSA both creates and limits a family's remedy: for a death more than three nautical miles out, recovery is confined to pecuniary losses, with no damages for grief or loss of society. That limitation makes the threshold location question — and any available alternative theory — decisive to what a family can actually recover.