Opinion ID: 422139
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Tort Liability of United States for Negligence of ECR or Its Employees.

Text: 44 The government argues that the negligence of ECR or its employees, as the negligence of agents of the United States, may not be imputed to the United States to form the basis of tort liability under section 1346(b). We agree. 45 The United States is not liable under the FTCA for the negligence of its independent contractors. 28 U.S.C. § 2671; United States v. Orleans, 425 U.S. 807, 96 S.Ct. 1971, 48 L.Ed.2d 390 (1976). The critical test for distinguishing an agent from a contractor is the existence of federal authority to control and supervise the detailed physical performance and day-to-day operations of the contractor, and not whether the agent must comply with federal standards and regulations. Orleans, 425 U.S. at 814-15, 96 S.Ct. at 1975-76 (citing Logue v. United States, 412 U.S. 521, 528, 93 S.Ct. 2215, 2219, 37 L.Ed.2d 121 (1973)). In both Logue and Orleans, the Supreme Court held that in the absence of the authority of federal employees to supervise the day-to-day operations of a contractor, the mere ability of the government to compel compliance with federal standards is not sufficient to create an agency relationship. Orleans, 425 U.S. at 816, 96 S.Ct. at 1976; Logue, 412 U.S. at 527-28, 93 S.Ct. at 2219. While by contract, the [federal] Government may fix specific and precise conditions to implement federal objectives, such restrictions required by regulation do not convert the acts of entrepreneurs ... into federal governmental acts. Orleans, 425 U.S. at 816, 96 S.Ct. at 1976 (footnote omitted). 46 The trial court did not err in finding that ECR was an independent contractor. ECR was required by the concession agreement to submit price lists for federal approval, to maintain and operate the facilities to such extent and in such manner as the Secretary may deem satisfactory, to pay a fixed percentage of revenues to the United States, and to comply with numerous other contractual provisions. Many of these contractual provisions find their origin, however, in various rules and regulations which were issued by the Department of the Interior for standard concession agreements. As such, they are the sort of regulation-mandated contractual restrictions described in Orleans that are designed to secure federal objectives and that, despite their restrictive effect on the activities of the contracting party, do not convert an independent entrepreneur into an agent of the federal government. 47 Furthermore, the contractual provisions themselves, while restricting the operations of ECR to some degree, do not give the NPS authority to regulate the detailed physical performance of conducting a recreational facility in Eldorado Canyon. Instead, they leave the concessioner in large part free to select the means of implementing the contractual requirements. For example, while the NPS, by contract, had the power to regulate and approve the rates and prices of goods and services charged by ECR, the contract nowhere gives the NPS the power to set prices initially or to choose the specific items or goods to be sold. Similarly, while the NPS had the contractual power to disapprove unfit employees and to require employees of ECR to wear a uniform or badge, the contract does not empower the Secretary to supervise the initial hiring decisions, the assignment of job tasks, the choice of uniform color and design, the placement of the badge, the frequency of uniform laundering, or any other day-to-day activities. Plaintiffs assert that it was the usual absence of the NPS ranger from Eldorado Canyon on his duties elsewhere that was in part responsible for the deaths in this case. We take this as an indication that the only federal employee who conceivably could have executed any supervisory authority the federal government might have had over the day-to-day operations of ECR did not in fact exercise any substantial control over ECR activities. The degree of federal authority to supervise and control the day-to-day operations of ECR that is required under the Orleans test is simply lacking. 18