Court Opinion

ID: 9447792
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:44:48.747239+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:11.922430
License: Public Domain

TUTTLE, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
With deference to the views of my colleagues, I respectfully dissent.
I think it is clear that the two-year statute of limitations had barred the action for damages based on the separate individual airplane crashes long before any recovery was sought based on any such acts of the United States.
As is clearly shown by the quotations in the majority opinion, the suit was filed specifically on an act of negligence entirely unrelated to the individual airplane crashes. It alleged:
“Plaintiffs allege that the cause and the proximate cause of their injuries and damages, as herein-above set forth, is the negligence and wont of ordinary care on the part of Defendant, its agents, servants, and/or employees, in failing to perfect the process of reimbursing or compensating Plaintiffs for their property, so that Plaintiffs might move from the vicinity of Foster Air Force Base.” (Emphasis supplied by the majority opinion.)
The complaint contained no allegations of any specific crash or illegal low-level flights; in contained no allegation of any negligence on the part of the United States in connection with any crash or flight.
It seems to me that the language quoted from Barthel v. Stamm, 5 Cir., 145 F.2d 487, 491, when applied to the pleadings here demonstrates beyond any doubt that these claimed torts were barred by the statute. The original complaint gave no notice of any kind that an inquiry would be made by the court into the cause of any crash. It put the United States on notice only that it must be prepared to produce all the records and information it had respecting the alleged visits by agents of the Government, and alleged representations that the plaintiffs would be moved and compensated, and the failure of the Government “to perfect the process of reimbursing or compensating plaintiffs for their property.” In point of fact, this complaint failed so utterly to allege a claim under the Tort Claims Act that the Government could, it seems to me, have ignored it completely.
Moreover, the facts developed on this trial demonstrates the reason for the rule announced by this court in the Barthel case. The Government was unable to produce records of the investigation as to the cause of each accident, because, as the trial court said in its statement, “defendant’s counsel says that the reports were not produced because plaintiffs originally sued on the theory of nuisance and the records cannot now be secured.” Nothing said in the complaint gave the defendant any notice that an inquiry into the cause of the crashes-would be needed for the trial if the case ever progressed to a trial. Thus, in this very case, the defendant is greatly prejudiced by the court’s ignoring the limitation point as it affects amending a complaint.
The prejudice to the defendant is made fully apparent here because the court finally decided the case on the doctrine-res ipsa loquitur. In other words, the application of this principle puts the full burden on the defendant to prove absence-of negligence on its part after permitting-the statute to run and lull the defendant into disposing of the only records from which such proof could be forthcoming.
Furthermore, I think this is not a proper case for application of the doctrine res ipsa loquitur. It is not true-that a jet airplane crashes only if the-*47pilot is negligent. Such crashes may be attributable to many things, such as structural defects, conditions of weather, excusable errors in pilot judgment falling far short of pilot negligence, and the like. I think the case falls within the principles laid down by this Court in Williams v. United States, 5 Cir., 218 F.2d 473. In fact, the trial court completely waters down the basis for applying the doctrine res ipsa loquitur, for the court finally says: “Certainly a preponderance of the evidence indicates that these planes would not have crashed in the absence of negligence either in inspection, maintenance or operation.” Of course, nothing at all was proved as to these particular crashes. The court thus based the application of res ipsa loquitur on its finding that “a preponderance of the evidence indicates * * * negligence.”
I would reverse and render judgment for the defendant.