Liberia Malaria

In a return to the Fifth Circuit after an earlier panel opinion affirmed an antisuit injunction, the Court applied the Lauritzen-Rhoditis factors to conclude that Liberian law, rather than American, governed a boat crewmember’s claim about catching malaria aboard the ship:

Considered in the context of this case, involving traditional maritime shipping activities and assertions of wrongdoing yielding a seaman’s “shipboard injury,” none of the Lauritzen-Rhoditis factors that the Supreme Court has deemed significant to the choice of-law determination in traditional maritime shipping cases involve the United States. Specifically, the law of the flag factor, which generally is “of cardinal importance” in the traditional maritime shipping context, points to Liberia.

Ganpat v. Eastern Pacific Shipping PTE, No. 22-30758 (May 1, 2024).