Court Opinion

ID: 9476791
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:05:35.450624+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:30.832890
License: Public Domain

FARRIS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
My sympathy for those lost in the flood and their survivors is not exceeded by the majority. We simply disagree on how many opportunities a plaintiff should have to prove negligence. I would not reverse the district court’s finding of fact regarding proximate cause and remand for another trial when the record and the argument on appeal leave no doubt about what happened following our initial remand.
The district court found as a fact that the flood was not foreseeable and that the United States had no duty to warn. The majority does not reverse that finding, but remands for consideration of whether the government issued warnings regarding the 100-year flood that was foreseeable, and if so, whether those warnings would have prevented the loss and injury from the heavier, unforeseeable flood. The time to explore that issue has now passed. Counsel elected not to present evidence regarding that issue at retrial. Instead, he chose to rely on dicta from the initial proceeding where the trial court indicated that the plaintiffs have proven simple negligence in the government’s failure to post flash flood warning signs or to develop a system to alert individuals of an approaching flood. The majority treated that issue in its opinion. Having done so, I would affirm. Browzin v. Catholic University of America, 527 F.2d 843, 849 n. 10, 850 n. 15 (D.C.Cir.1975) (Ordinarily, a party cannot expect to lose in the district court on one theory, but prevail on appeal under another). To order yet another trial is excessive.