Opinion ID: 782233
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: intentional tort exception

Text: 142 We also agree with the district court that Alvarez's claims do not fall within the intentional tort exception to the FTCA. See 28 U.S.C. § 2680(h). 43 Although the waiver of sovereign immunity under the FTCA excludes intentional torts such as false arrest, this exclusion is followed by an important proviso: It does not apply if the intentional tort is committed by an investigative or law enforcement officer. Id. See also Orsay v. United States Dep't of Justice, 289 F.3d 1125, 1134 (9th Cir.2002) (noting that Congress chose to single out investigative and law enforcement officers from other federal employees because their authority to use force and threaten government action carries with it the risk of abuse, or the risk of intentionally tortious conduct). 143 The DEA agents who orchestrated Alvarez's arrest are law enforcement officers as defined by the FTCA because they are empowered by law to execute searches, to seize evidence, or to make arrests for violations of Federal law. 28 U.S.C. § 2680(h). Because the primary tortious act was the initiation and planning of Alvarez's abduction by the DEA agents, his claim falls squarely within this law enforcement proviso, and thus the intentional tort exclusion does not apply. 144 The purpose of the law enforcement proviso in § 2680(h) is to provid[e] a remedy against the Federal Government for innocent victims of Federal law enforcement abuses. Orsay, 289 F.3d at 1134-35 (quoting S.Rep. No. 93-588, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 3 (1973), reprinted in 1974 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News 2789, 2792 (1974)). As the original three-judge panel put it, this purpose would be manifestly frustrated if law enforcement officers could avoid liability by recruiting civilians to do their dirty work. Alvarez-Machain IV, 266 F.3d at 1056. 145 Because neither the foreign activities exception nor the intentional tort exception applies, we proceed to the merits of Alvarez's false arrest claim under the FTCA.