46 U.S.C. § 11109
Section 11109 · Attachment of wages
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case Pacific Merchant Shipping Ass'n v. Aubry (1990)
Most recently applied in Wilbur Smith v. Seaport Marine, Inc. (August 2014)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Wages due or accruing to a master or seaman are not subject to attachment or arrestment from any court, except for an order of a court about the payment by a master or seaman of any part of the master's or seaman's wages for the support and maintenance of the spouse or minor children of the master or seaman, or both. A payment of wages to a master or seaman is valid, notwithstanding any prior sale or assignment of wages or any attachment, encumbrance, or arrestment of the wages.
(b) An assignment or sale of wages or salvage made before the payment of wages does not bind the party making it, except allotments authorized by section 10315 of this title.
(c) This section applies to an individual employed on a fishing vessel or any fish processing vessel.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Section 11109 limits the attachment of a seaman's wages and establishes certain rules for the assignment of a seaman's wages. It also applies to fishermen on fishing vessels.
Amendments
1984—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 98–364 substituted “an individual employed on a fishing vessel or any fish processing vessel” for “a fisherman on a fishing vessel”.