Chirinos de Alvarez v. Creole Petroleum Corp.

A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, Jr., Circuit Judge.

In November, 1975 four Venezuelan men died in an explosion while on a crew launch in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. Their widows brought suit in the courts of the United States arguing that the laws of the United States — the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688, and general maritime law — should be applied to their wrongful death and survival actions. The district court dismissed their complaints, reasoning that United States law did not apply because the only significant link between the accident and the United States was the ownership of the vessels by a United…