In the case of Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that federal law does not allow survivors to seek additional damages for non-pecuniary losses such as loss of society under general maritime law when a death occurs on the high seas outside state territorial waters. The court held that Congress had intended to limit recovery in such cases to pecuniary losses when it enacted the Death on High Seas Act (DOHSA) and thus precluded any supplementary recovery under general maritime law. This decision clarified that DOHSA provides an exclusive remedy for deaths occurring more than three nautical miles from shore, thereby limiting wrongful death recoveries in these circumstances.

In the dissenting opinion for Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham, Justice Marshall argued that the majority's decision to limit damages under the Death on High Seas Act (DOHSA) was incorrect and overly restrictive. He believed that DOHSA did not preclude recovery for non-pecuniary losses in maritime wrongful death actions, such as loss of society or companionship, which are typically available in common law tort cases. The majority’s interpretation of DOHSA effectively barred plaintiffs from seeking these types of damages even though they were not explicitly excluded by the statute itself. Furthermore, he disagreed with their assertion that Congress intended to limit recoverable damages when it enacted DOHSA; instead, he suggested that Congress simply aimed to create a uniform standard for maritime wrongful death suits without necessarily limiting potential compensation.