Opinion ID: 383662
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the children's other claims

Text: 68 In addition to their constitutional claims, the children assert certain non-constitutional claims under the Tucker Act, the Federal Tort Claims Act 32 and common law. 33
69 The children's Tucker Act claims are that the Attorney General of the United States, knowing that Calabrese was a convicted felon, consigned the children to the company and association of Calabrese, who caused them mental and physical harm. The children claim that the Attorney General thereby violated the Organized Crime Control Act, and each child seeks damages from the United States under the Tucker Act in the amount of $10,000. Their claim is fatally flawed in several respects. 70 The United States, of course, is immune from suit save as it consents to be sued. E. g., United States v. Sherwood, 312 U.S. 584, 586, 61 S.Ct. 767, 769, 85 L.Ed. 1058 (1941). The Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(2) (1976), gives the district courts jurisdiction over civil actions against the United States, not exceeding $10,000 in amount, founded . . . upon . . . any Act of Congress. This section, however, is merely a jurisdictional provision; it does not create any substantive right enforceable against the United States for money damages. United States v. Testan, 424 U.S. 392, 398, 96, 948, 953, 47 L.Ed.2d 114 (1976). In order to determine whether any substantive right exists, we must look to the Act of Congress relied on, to find a clear waiver of sovereign immunity. And it has been said, in a Court of Claims context, that a waiver of the traditional sovereign immunity 'cannot be implied but must be unequivocally expressed.' United States v. King, 395 U.S. (1, 4, 89 S.Ct. 1501, 23 L.Ed.2d 52 (1969)); Soriano v. United States, 352 U.S. 270, 276 (, 77 S.Ct. 269, 1 L.Ed.2d 306) (1957). United States v. Testan, supra, 424 U.S. at 399, 96 S.Ct. at 954-55. 71 The substantive statute relied on by the children is the Organized Crime Control Act (the Act). This Act authorizes the Attorney General to provide for the health, safety and welfare of prospective witnesses, and their families, expected to be called to testify against alleged members of organized crime, whenever in the Attorney General's judgment, such testimony or willingness to testify would place in jeopardy the life or person of the prospective witness or his family. Pub.L. 91-452, Title V, §§ 501-504, 84 Stat. 933 (Oct. 15, 1970). 34 The initial problem with the children's claim is that the Act contains no suggestion that Congress intended to waive the government's immunity to a suit for failure to provide protection against reprisals or to create any private right of action for such a failure. 35 Moreover, even if some right of action were inferable, it could not be presumed that Congress intended to permit members of the family of the witness to sue the United States for injuries inflicted upon them by the witness. The risk that the witness may thereafter abuse members of his family is simply not one of the dangers sought to be eliminated by the Act. Finally, the Act was not in effect at the pertinent times. The children were removed and first given new identities in 1967; and according to Rochelle's affidavit, the government's participation in their concealment ended in July 1970. The Organized Crime Control Act was not passed until October 15, 1970. There is no indication that Congress intended to create any rights in favor of the family of a witness who had already testified in the past and had been shielded from organized crime for as long as the government felt necessary. 72 For all of these reasons, the Tucker Act claims were properly dismissed.
73 The children's tort claims against the United States are somewhat similar to their Tucker Act claims. They allege that in arranging for the release of Calabrese and undertaking to conceal and support the children, the government undertook a duty to protect them from mental and physical harm. Reading the complaint in conjunction with the plaintiffs' administrative claim forms, it appears that the children claim that the United States negligently breached this duty by allowing them to be assaulted, battered, deprived of proper care and education, and mentally abused, by Calabrese. Each of the children seeks $500,000 in damages from the United States under the Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2674 (1976). 74 For tort claims, as for contract or statutory claims, the United States may be sued only to the extent that it has waived its sovereign immunity. The waiver for tort claims is limited both in substantive scope and in duration. The temporal constraints that Congress has placed on the government's vulnerability to tort suits are found in 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b) (1976). Section 2401(b) provides in pertinent part that (a) tort claim against the United States shall be forever barred unless it is presented in writing to the appropriate Federal agency within two years after such claim accrues . . . . 36 It is firmly established that the two-year period is not tolled by a claimant's minority. E. g., Smith v. United States, 588 F.2d 1209, 1211 (8th Cir. 1978); Simon v. United States, 244 F.2d 703 (5th Cir. 1957); United States v. Glenn, 231 F.2d 884 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 352 U.S. 926, 77 S.Ct. 223, 1 L.Ed.2d 161 (1956); Hoch v. Carter, 242 F.Supp. 863 (S.D.N.Y.1965). 75 The children's tort claims were filed with the government on June 27, 1977. The effect of the two-year limitation provided by § 2401(b) is thus to bar recovery by the children on any tort claim that accrued prior to June 27, 1975. To the extent that their tort claims against the United States accrued prior to that date, they were properly dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. 76 It is unclear whether this disposition leaves any tort claims for the children to prosecute against the United States. 37 Rochelle's affidavit states that the children lived with Calabrese only until June 1975, and does not specify the date their cohabitation ceased. The complaint asserts that Calabrese unlawfully imprisoned the children until July 4, 1975. Even on the assumption that Calabrese may have falsely imprisoned the children at any time between June 27, 1975 and July 4, 1975, however, the Tort Claims Act bars the children's recovery on such a claim. 77 With certain exceptions, the United States has consented to be liable for its torts only to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances. 38 28 U.S.C. § 2674. Thus, it has not consented to be liable for injuries which its negligence has not proximately caused. See, e. g., Beesley v. United States, 364 F.2d 194 (10th Cir. 1966); United States v. Shively, 345 F.2d 294 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 382 U.S. 883, 86 S.Ct. 177, 15 L.Ed.2d 124 (1965); United States v. Hutchins, 268 F.2d 69 (6th Cir. 1959). Both the character and the timing of the events alleged require a dismissal of the children's claims. The government acts complained of are arranging the release of Calabrese and arranging for the children to live with him. The charge, of course, ignores the facts that Rochelle had custody of the children and that she was married to Calabrese. The government did not impose the requirement that the children live with Calabrese; they were already part of the same family unit and had lived together prior to Calabrese's imprisonment. Moreover, despite the reiteration by plaintiffs that Calabrese was a convicted felon, there is no evidence in the record to suggest that he had a history of child abuse or neglect; the crime for which he was imprisoned was robbery. 39 And in any event, the protection of family members from each other is not the kind of duty assumed in the program to protect government informers who testify against organized crime. Finally, although the acts of Calabrese which may form the basis for the tort claims against the government may have occurred between June 27, 1975 and July 4, 1975, the last overt act of the government occurred half a decade earlier: Rochelle's affidavit reveals that the government's last acts in supporting and concealing the children occurred in July 1970. 78 Thus we find the acts of the government in arranging Calabrese's release in 1968, and concealing him and the children through July 1970 to protect them from reprisals by organized crime, too remote from the claims that in 1975 Calabrese unlawfully imprisoned the children. See W. Prosser, Handbook of the Law of Torts § 51, at 322 (3d ed. 1964); cf. Martinez v. California, supra. 79 Finally, the United States cannot be held liable for failure to continue to support the children and Calabrese past 1970 or to conduct minute supervision over their daily lives. Such decisions are clearly matters of discretion, and the government has not consented to 80 (a)ny claim based upon . . . the exercise or performance or the failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function or duty on the part of a federal agency or an employee of the Government, whether or not the discretion involved be abused. 81 28 U.S.C. § 2680(a) (1976).
82 The complaint contains one common law tort claim on behalf of the children against certain unidentified individuals. It is asserted that these individuals abducted the children from Leonhard in August 1967 and continued to harbor them from him until July 1975. 40 The claim does not appear to be sustainable. 83 It is clear that in 1967 Rochelle had lawful custody of the children; Leonhard did not have custody but only visitation rights. It is also clear that Rochelle consented to the removal and concealment of the children, along with the removal and concealment of herself, and that the children always resided with her. Her affidavit makes it clear beyond cavil that her, and the children's, removal and concealment were entirely voluntary. In these circumstances the children have no claim for abduction or false imprisonment. 41 See, e. g., Restatement (Second) of Torts § 700, comment c (1976); id. § 892A, comment b (1977); id. § 703, comments a, e (1976). Cf. Dale v. State, 44 A.D.2d 384, 355 N.Y.S.2d 485 (3d Dep't 1974), aff'd mem., 36 N.Y.2d 833, 331 N.E.2d 686, 370 N.Y.S.2d 906 (1975); Anonymous v. State, 17 A.D.2d 495, 236 N.Y.S.2d 88 (3d Dep't), leave to appeal denied, 13 N.Y.2d 598, 245 N.Y.S.2d 1025, 194 N.E.2d 836 (1963).