Opinion ID: 20741
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Plaintiff's Articulation of the Boyle Test is in Error

Text: 14 Plaintiff argues that, in the approval process, the government must have considered and rejected a safer design alternative proposed by the plaintiff, or at least must have itself prospectively limited the discretion of the contractor to include a safer alternative design. The district court noted that this argument is well suited for presentation to Congress or to the Supreme Court rather than the district court but that it is contrary to the case law. See Boyle, 487 U.S. at 513; Stout, 933 F.2d at 334-35; see also Tate v. Boeing Helicopters, 140 F.3d 654 (6th Cir. 1998) (Tate II). The Boyle court noted that, while this is perhaps a reasonable rule of tort law, it did not sufficiently protect the federal interest in the selection of appropriate military equipment. 15 The design ultimately selected may well reflect a significant policy judgment by Government officials whether or not the contractor rather than those officials developed the design. In addition, it does not seem to us sound policy to penalize, and thus deter, active contractor participation in the design process, placing the contractor at risk unless it identifies all design defects. 16 Boyle, 487 U.S. at 513. The district court noted that this last sentence can mean only that the defense applies even when the contractor did not warn the government of latent defects-in other words, defects that neither the contractor nor the government considered it at all. We agree. The articulation of the government contractor defense offered by the plaintiff is contrary to the case law. 17