Batterton

We address the availability of punitive damages for unseaworthiness.

This case comes to us on a 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (b) certification for interlocutory appeal. The district court certified the appeal, and we granted permission for it. District courts within our circuit have divided on the substantive issue, 1 as have the circuits, 2 and the issue is of considerable importance in maritime law.

Facts

The case comes to us on the pleadings and nothing else. The district court denied a motion to strike .the portion of the prayer seeking punitive damages for unseaworthiness. We therefore take our facts from the complaint. They are not proved, and we intimate no view as to whether punitive damages may ultimately turn out to be appropriate.

The plaintiff, Christopher Batterton, was a deckhand on a vessel owned and operated by the defendant, Dutra Group. While Batterton was working on the vessel in navigable waters, a. hatch cover blew open and crushed his left hand. Pressur *1091 ized air was being pumped into a compartment below the hatch cover, and the vessel lacked an exhaust mechanism to relieve the pressure when it got too high. The lack of a mechanism for exhausting the…