Court Opinion

ID: 9446103
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:46:18.749467+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:31.632191
License: Public Domain

LUMBARD, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The sole issue before this Court is whether Kwajalein is a “foreign country” within the meaning of the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2680(k). If it is not then this suit may be brought for injuries suffered by Edward Peter Callas, the infant son of a navel officer stationed on Kwajalein, when a round of ammunition he had picked up on the beach on February 20, 1955 exploded in his hand.
It is generally agreed that “foreign country” as used in the Federal Tort Claims Act is not a term of art and that its construction is dependent on the intent of Congress in excluding claims arising in foreign countries from the remedial provisions of the Act. See e. g. Burna v. United States, 4 Cir., 1957, 240 F.2d 720. Although the bases for the exclusion are not wholly clear, some have *843been suggested. The Supreme Court m United States v. Spelar, 1949, 338 U.S. 217, 70 S.Ct. 10, 94 L.Ed. 3 suggested that Congress was reluctant to predicate governmental liability on whatever the foreign tort law might happen to be. It has also been noted that the absence of district courts outside the United States would cause difficulties and expense in litigating claims in a forum far removed from the scene of a tort. Burna v. United States, supra, 240 F.2d at page 722. Courts have also ascribed a Congressional intent to preclude claims arising outside the United States and possessions where it is sovereign or in areas commonly understood and thought of as alien and foreign. See United States v. Spelar, supra; concurring opinion of Judge Pope in Cobb v. United States, 9 Cir., 1951, 191 F.2d 604, certiorari denied 342 U.S. 913, 72 S.Ct. 360, 96 L.Ed. 683.
In the international law sense, Kwaja-lein and related islands hold a unique position. A coral atoll and site of a United States naval station, Kwajalein is part of the Marshall Islands, this island group being one of the six districts of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.1 The territory is controlled by the United States by virtue of a Trusteeship Agreement with the United Nations, allowing in practical effect the exercise of full sovereign power by the United States although a residual sovereignty remains in the territory, divisions thereof, or the United Nations. See 1 Oppenheim, International Law 236 (8th Ed. 1955) for the latter view. In common with all trust territories, termination of the trust requires the consent of the administering authority as well as the consent of the United Nations. Moreover, this territory is the only area designated as a strategic trust, a designation which results in the United States being responsible to the Security Council rather that the General Assembly for administration of the trust, permits preferential treatment of the United States in economic and commercial matters, and allows this country unilaterally to declare all or any part of the islands a closed area within which the United States may determine the extent to which trustee functions shall be exercised and from which it may bar anyone, including the United Nations.
The area is administered from a headquarters on Guam, a territory of the United States, and for the most part through the Department of the Interior. A system of courts has been established, applying local law and law which this country has introduced through codes, orders, and Congressional legislation. The local law apparently pertains primarily to property rights and criminal acts, and personal injury law, at least to the extent that United States citizens are involved, apparently would be based upon an incorporation of United States concepts in the absence of developed indigenous law. This is apparently what the Director of the Office of Territories of the Department of the Interior had in mind in his letter, referred to by Judge GALSTON, when he stated that the law of the trust territory included “* * * the common law of England and all statutes of Parliament in and thereof in force and effect on July 3, 1776, as interpreted by American courts.”
The Charter of the United Nations and the Trusteeship Agreement impose binding legal obligations upon this country to promote self-government and other enumerated objectives. It is clear, however, that political development in the territory is elementary and that it will be a considerable time before the trust obligations are fulfilled and the trust terminated. Although the purpose of the trust is to prepare for independence, the furtherance of that purpose will require administration by the United States for an indefinite period in the future.
*844One other factor should be noted. By the venue provisions of the Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1402(b), civil actions on a tort claim against the United States “ * * * may be prosecuted only in the judicial district where the plaintiff resides or wherein the act or omission complained of occurred.” Since there is no district court in the territory where an action may be brought, see 28 U.S. C.A. § 1346(b), the practical effect is to restrict suits against the government for claims arising in the trust territory to those prosecuted by residents of the United States.
Pulling these threads together, it is apparent that the United States acts as sovereign in the area although theoretically sovereignty lies elsewhere, that the administration is closely tied in with the administration of overseas territories and possessions, which are certainly not “foreign countries,”2 that insofar as we are presently advised the law to be applied is general tort concepts as developed by United States courts and introduced into the territory because of United States control, and that as a practical matter actions are restricted to those by United States residents who, it is quite apparent, would ordinarily be in the islands only because of this country’s interest in the trust territory. I do not think Congress intended that United States residents injured through the negligence of the United States in an area so controlled and administered by the United States and whose claims are based on general United States tort law should be remitted to the legislative machinery of private bills. In my opinion, Kwajalein is not now a “foreign country” as Congress used the term in the Federal Tort Claims Act and was not on February 20, 1955.
I would reverse the order of the District Court and remand for further proceedings.

. See generally, Report of the Special Subcommittee on Territorial and Insular Affairs of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, 83d Cong., 2d Sess. (1955).

. The people of our territories and possessions are citizens of this country, except for American Samoa and Swains Island, whose people are nationals. 8 U.S. C..A. §§ 1101(a) (29), 1101(a) (38), 1408. The Canal Zone occupies a special status which is in some respects analogous to that of the trust territory although it is permanently and more closely tied to the United States. Its people are not citizens or nationals, 8 U.S.C.A. § 1403, and although, this country has full rights of use, occupation and control, it does not “own” the area. See 1 Oppenheim, International Law 458 (8th Ed. 1955). It is clear, however, that Congress intended the Federal Tort Claims Act to apply since it expressly extended jurisdiction to try such actions to the Canal Zone. 28 U.S.O.A. § 1346(b).