Source: http://www2.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/Feres_v_United_States_340_US_135_71_S_Ct_153_95_L_Ed_152_1950_Cou
Timestamp: 2013-12-08 12:18:07
Document Index: 111588110

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1346', '§ 2671', '§ 2680', '§ 2674', '§ 903', '§ 1346', '§ 1291', '§ 410', '§ 701', '§ 718', '§ 725', '§ 731', '§ 740']

The cases are stated in the opinion. The orders granting certiorari in Nos. 9 and 29 are reported at 339 U. S. 910 and in No. 31 at 339 U. S. 951. The decisions below in Nos. 9 and 29 are affirmed and that in No. 31 is reversed, p. 146.[***153] [**154] David H. Moses argued the cause for petitioner in No. 9. With him on the brief was Morris Pouser[***154] .
Newell A. Clapp argued the cause for the United States. With him on the briefs were Solicitor General Perlman, Assistant Attorney General Morison, Paul A. Sweeney and Morton Hollander. John R. Benney was also with them on the brief in No. 31.[***155] Frederick P. Cranston argued the cause, and James S. Henderson filed a brief, for respondent in No. 31.[***156] MR. JUSTICE JACKSON delivered the opinion of the Court.[**155] A common issue arising under the Tort Claims Act, as to which Courts of Appeals are in conflict, makes it appropriate to consider three cases in one opinion.
We do not overlook considerations persuasive of liability in these cases. [1] The Act does confer district court jurisdiction generally over claims for money damages against the United States founded on negligence. 28 U. S. C. § 1346 (b). It does contemplate that the Government will sometimes respond for negligence of military personnel, for it defines "employee of the Government" to include "members of the military or naval forces of the United States," and provides that "'acting within the scope of his office or employment', in the case of a member of the military or naval forces of the United States, means acting in line of duty." 28 U. S. C. § 2671. Its exceptions might also imply inclusion of claims such as we have here. 28 U. S. C. § 2680 (j) excepts "any claim arising out of the combatant activities of the military or naval forces, or the Coast Guard, during time of war" (emphasis supplied), from which it is said we should infer allowance of claims arising from noncombat activities in peace. Section 2680 (k) excludes "any claim arising [**156] in a foreign country." Significance [*139] also has been attributed in these cases, as in the Brooks case, supra, p. 51, to the fact that eighteen tort claims bills were introduced in Congress between 1925 and 1935 and all but two expressly denied recovery to members of the armed forces; but the bill enacted as the present Tort Claims Act from its introduction made no exception. We also are reminded that the Brooks case, in spite of its reservation of service-connected injuries, interprets the Act to cover claims not incidental to service, and it is argued that much of its reasoning is as apt to impose liability in favor of a man on duty as in favor of one on leave. These considerations, it is said, should persuade us to cast upon Congress, as author of the confusion, the task of qualifying and clarifying its language if the liability here asserted should prove so depleting of the public treasury as the Government fears.
For this purpose, the Act goes on to prescribe the test of allowable claims, which is, "The United States shall be liable . . . in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances . . .," with certain exceptions not material here. 28 U. S. C. § 2674. It will be seen that this is not the creation of new causes of action but acceptance of liability under circumstances that would bring private liability into existence. This, we think, embodies the same idea that its English equivalent enacted in 1947 (Crown Proceedings Act 1947; 10 and 11 Geo. VI, c. 44, p. 863) expressed, "Where any person has a claim against the Crown after the commencement of this Act, and, if this Act had not been passed, the claim might have been enforced, subject to the grant . . ." of consent to be sued, the claim may now be enforced without specific consent. One obvious shortcoming in these claims is that plaintiffs can point to no liability of a "private individual" even remotely analogous to that which they are asserting against the United States. We know of no American law which ever has permitted a soldier to recover for negligence, against either his superior officers or the Government he is serving.10 Nor is there any liability "under like circumstances," for no private individual has power to conscript or mobilize a private army with such authorities over persons as the Government vests in echelons [*142] of command. The nearest parallel, even if we were to treat "private individual" as including a state, would be the relationship between the states and their militia. But if we indulge plaintiffs the benefit of this comparison, claimants cite us no state, and we know of [***159] none, which has permitted members of its militia to maintain tort actions for injuries suffered in the service, and in at least one state the contrary has been held to be the case.11 It is true that if we consider relevant only a part of the circumstances and ignore the status of both the wronged and the wrongdoer in these cases we find analogous private liability. In the usual civilian doctor and patient relationship, there is of course a liability for malpractice. And a landlord would undoubtedly be held liable if an injury occurred to a tenant as the result of a negligently maintained heating plant. [2] But the liability assumed by the Government here is that created by "all the circumstances," not that which a few of the circumstances might create. We find no parallel liability before, and we think no new one has been created by, this Act. Its effect is to waive immunity from recognized causes of action and was not to visit the Government with novel and unprecedented liabilities.
This Court, in deciding claims for wrongs incident to service under the Tort Claims Act, cannot escape attributing some bearing upon it to enactments by Congress which provide systems of simple, certain, and uniform compensation for injuries or death of those in armed services.12 We might say that the claimant may (a) enjoy both types of recovery, or (b) elect which to pursue, thereby waiving the other, or (c) pursue both, crediting the larger liability with the proceeds of the smaller, or (d) that the compensation and pension remedy excludes the tort remedy. There is as much statutory authority for one as for another of these conclusions. If Congress had contemplated that this Tort Act would be held to apply in cases of this kind, it is difficult to see why it should have omitted any provision to adjust these two types of remedy to each other. The absence of any such adjustment is persuasive that there was no awareness that the Act might be interpreted to permit recovery for injuries incident to military service.[*145] A soldier is at peculiar disadvantage in litigation.13 Lack of time and [**159] money, the difficulty if not impossibility of procuring witnesses, are only a few of the factors working to his disadvantage. And the few cases charging superior officers or the Government with neglect or misconduct which have been brought since the Tort Claims Act, of which the present are typical, have either been suits by widows or surviving dependents, or have been brought after the individual was discharged.14 The compensation system, which normally requires no litigation, is not negligible or niggardly, as these cases demonstrate. The recoveries compare extremely favorably with those provided by most workmen's compensation statutes. In the Jefferson case, the District Court considered actual and prospective payments by the Veterans' Administration as diminution of the verdict. Plaintiff received $3,645.50 to the date of the court's computation and on estimated life expectancy under existing legislation would prospectively receive $31,947 in addition. In the Griggs case, the widow, in the two-year period after her husband's death, received payments in excess of $2,100. In addition, she received $2,695, representing the six months' death gratuity under the Act of December 17, 1919, as amended, 41 Stat. 367, 57 Stat. 599, 10 U. S. C. § 903. It is estimated that her total future pension payments will aggregate $18,000. Thus the widow will receive an amount in excess of $22,000 from Government gratuities, whereas she sought and could seek under state law only $15,000, the maximum permitted by Illinois for death.[*146] It is contended that all these considerations were before the Court in the Brooks case and that allowance of recovery to Brooks requires [***161] a similar holding of liability here. The actual holding in the Brooks case can support liability here only by ignoring the vital distinction there stated. The injury to Brooks did not arise out of or in the course of military duty. Brooks was on furlough, driving along the highway, under compulsion of no orders or duty and on no military mission. A government owned and operated vehicle collided with him. Brooks' father, riding in the same car, recovered for his injuries and the Government did not further contest the judgment but contended that there could be no liability to the sons, solely because they were in the Army. This Court rejected the contention, primarily because Brooks' relationship while on leave was not analogous to that of a soldier injured while performing duties under orders.
[3] We conclude that the Government is not liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries to servicemen where the injuries arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service. Without exception, the relationship of military personnel to the Government has been governed exclusively by federal law. We do not think that Congress, in drafting this Act, created a new cause of action dependent on local law for service-connected injuries or death due to negligence. We cannot impute to Congress such a radical departure from established law in the absence of express congressional command. Accordingly, the judgments in the Feres and Jefferson cases are affirmed and that in the Griggs case is reversed.
fn9 28 U. S. C. § 1346 (b). The provisions of the Tort Claims Act are now found in Title 28, §§ 1291, 1346, 1402, 1504, 2110, 2401, 2402, 2411, 2412, 2671-2680. In recodifying Title 28 of the United States Code, changes in language were made. The Tort Claims Act, as originally enacted, 60 Stat. 843, provided in § 410 that the District Court "shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear, determine, and render judgment on any claim against the United States, for money only . . . ." (Emphasis supplied.) We attribute to this change of language no substantive change of law.
fn12 48 Stat. 8 (1933), as amended, 38 U. S. C. § 701 (1946); 48 Stat. 11 (1933), as amended, 38 U. S. C. § 718 (1946); 55 Stat. 608 (1941), 38 U. S. C. § 725 (1946); 57 Stat. 558 (1943), as amended, 38 U. S. C. § 731 (1946); 62 Stat. 1219, 1220 (1948), 38 U. S. C. (Supp. III) §§ 740, 741 (1950).
Table of CasesBrooks v. United States, 337 U. S. 49, 52United States v. Standard Oil Co., 332 U. S. 301Tarble's Case, 13 Wall. 397Kurtz v. Moffitt, 115 U. S. 487United States v. McLemore, 4 How. 286Reeside v. Walker, 11 How. 272, 290Ickes v. Fox, 300 U. S. 82, 96Dinsman v. Wilkes, 12 How. 390Goldstein v. New York, 281 N. Y. 396, 24 N. E. 2d 97Santana v. United States, 175 F. 2d 320 (C. A. 1st Cir.)Ostrander v. United States, 178 F. 2d 923 (C. A. 2d Cir.)Samson v. United States, 79 F. Supp. 406 (D. C. S. D. N. Y.)Alansky v. Northwest Airlines, 77 F. Supp. 556 (D. C. D. Mont.)