Rodrigue v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.

This case involves two men, Dore and Rodrigue, who met their deaths on artificial island drilling rigs located on the outer Continental Shelf off the Louisiana coast. Each man’s family brought suit for wrongful death in the federal courts both under the Death on the High Seas Act, 41 Stat. 537, 46 U. S. C. § 761 et seq. (hereinafter “Seas Act”), and under Louisiana law assertedly made applicable by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 67 Stat. 462, 43 U. S. C. § 1331 et seq. (hereinafter “Lands Act”). Each family’s suit was separately heard and decided in the District Courts and in the…