Opinion ID: 557798
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Common-Law Tort Claims

Text: 65 The district court dismissed plaintiffs' common-law tort claims on the ground that the FTCA gave the individual defendants absolute immunity from a suit for damages because those defendants were acting within the scope of their employment. Though we affirm this dismissal with respect to the individual defendants, we reinstate those claims against the United States. 66 Section 2679(b)(1) of the FTCA, as amended in 1988 and to the extent pertinent here, provides that a suit against the United States is the exclusive remedy for a suit for damages for injury or loss of property resulting from the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his office or employment. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2679(b)(1). This provision does not apply to suits for violation of federal constitutional or statutory rights, see id. Sec. 2679(b)(2), but provides government employees with immunity against claims of common-law tort. 67 The question of whether the act was wrongful is a different one from whether the act occurred while the employee was acting within the scope of his employment. Here it is clear that the individual defendants were law enforcement officers and that their jobs included the investigation of narcotics trafficking and the execution of federal search warrants. Plainly, therefore, whether or not in the course of so doing they performed wrongful acts, such as entering unannounced to execute the warrants or using excessively intrusive means of executing the warrants, the execution of the warrants was nonetheless within the scope of their employment. Accordingly, under Sec. 2679, the individual defendants are immune from suit on plaintiffs' claims of common-law tort. 68 Section 2679 does not, however, deprive plaintiffs of a remedy; it merely makes suit against the United States the exclusive remedy. Under Sec. 2674, the United States is liable for such tort claims in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances would be, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2674; and where, as here, the claim focuses on actions of employees of the executive branch of the government, the United States does not have the advantage of any defense of official immunity that the employee might have had, see id. 69 The district court, which had found virtually all of the individual defendants' actions reasonable, dismissed even plaintiffs' claims against the United States. In light of our ruling that there are questions of fact as to the reasonableness of the conduct of the defendants during the execution of the search warrants, plaintiffs must be allowed to pursue their common-law tort claims against the United States.