Opinion ID: 438918
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Relationship Between Service Member's Activity and Military Service

Text: 22 To determine whether a relevant relationship exists between the service member's activity and the military service, we focus our attention on three factors that our court has considered important: the duty status of the service member, the location of the injury, and the nature of the activity.
23 In previous Eighth Circuit decisions, the duty status of the service member at the time of the injury has been an important consideration in the analysis. See Miller v. United States, supra, 643 F.2d at 494. See also Laswell v. Brown, supra, 683 F.2d at 261. When the injury occurred in this case, Briscoe was off-duty for Memorial Day weekend, no training activities were planned for the weekend, and Briscoe was free to leave the base if he pleased. Thus, although Briscoe was not on furlough, this is not as strong a case for the application of Feres as those in which a service member was merely off-duty for the day. In a meaningful way, Briscoe's status was akin to that of a service member on pass. See Johnson v. United States, supra, 704 F.2d at 1438 n. 3. Under the circumstances, this factor is not a strong indicator that military immunity should apply.
24 The location of the injury has been considered significant by many courts under the incident to service test. Indeed, one court has observed that it appears fairly well established that if the injury occurs on a military base, recovery is automatically barred under Feres. Troglia v. United States, 602 F.2d 1334, 1337 (9th Cir.1979). Although Eighth Circuit cases have tended toward denying recovery in cases in which the injury occurs on a military base, there is no hard and fast rule to this effect. See Miller v. United States, supra, 643 F.2d at 493, 494, 495; Chambers v. United States, 357 F.2d 224, 229 (8th Cir.1966). We feel that such a rigid test is in part a substitute for analysis of whether the serviceman was injured in an activity incident to his service in the military. Troglia v. United States, supra, 602 F.2d at 1338. We believe that the location of the injury, which in this case occurred on a military base, is one of the factors to be considered, but it is not alone dispositive.
25 If our inquiry is truly to determine whether the policy reasons underlying Feres will be fulfilled by the application of military immunity in a particular case, we must examine what the serviceperson was actually doing at the time of the injury. See Miller v. United States, supra, 643 F.2d at 497 (Heaney, J., dissenting). Thus, if we are to adhere to the line drawn in the Feres case between injuries that did and injuries that did not arise out of or in the course of military duty, United States v. Brown, supra, 348 U.S. at 113, 75 S.Ct. at 143, we must consider whether the activity out of which the action arose served some military purpose or mission. See Johnson v. United States, supra, 704 F.2d at 1439; Miller v. United States, supra, 643 F.2d at 494; Parker v. United States, supra, 611 F.2d at 1014. The activity in this case--a racially tinged mock hanging of a fellow soldier--served no conceivable or remote military purpose.
26 In most cases, these three factors will determine whether there is a relevant relationship between the service member's activity at the time of the injury and the military service. However, we observe that there is a special category of cases in which the Feres rule has been applied because the service members, at the time of the injury, were enjoying a benefit because of their status as military personnel. See Johnson v. United States, supra, 704 F.2d at 1438. Frequently, the benefit is of a recreational nature such as in Chambers v. United States, supra, 357 F.2d at 224, in which a serviceman injured while swimming in an on-base pool was denied relief. Also in this category are suits by service members for medical malpractice, which have generally been barred. See Feres v. United States, supra, 340 U.S. at 135, 71 S.Ct. at 153; Alexander v. United States, 500 F.2d 1 (8th Cir.1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1107, 95 S.Ct. 779, 42 L.Ed.2d 803 (1975). In this case, Briscoe was not at the time of his injury enjoying any benefit peculiar to his status as a member of the military. 27 Considering the totality of circumstances in this case, we cannot conclude that there is the necessary relevant relationship between Briscoe's activity at the time of the injury and his military service. Briscoe was injured at a drinking party on a long holiday weekend on which he and the other participants in the incident were free to come and go as they pleased. The activity was not sponsored by the military base nor was it related to the military mission of the base or the National Guard. The mock lynching that occurred bore no relationship to any military purpose; rather, it struck a blow at the desired harmonious relations among the members of the military. Thus, we must now consider whether military discipline will be impeded if the challenged conduct is litigated in these lawsuits.