Supreme Court Accepts Review of Bare-Metal Defense Under Maritime Law

On May 14, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the petition of Air & Liquid Systems, CBS Corporation and Foster Wheeler to resolve a split among circuits regarding the viability of the bare metal defense under maritime law. Specifically, the parties appealed the Third Circuit’s ruling in October 2017 that the bare metal defense is inapplicable to negligence claims under maritime law. That opinion was previously analyzed by this blog post. The Supreme Court will resolve a split on the issue between the Third and Sixth Circuits. The exact issued to be reviewed by the Supreme Court is “Can products-liability defendants be held liable under maritime law for injuries caused by products that they did not make, sell, or distribute?”