Court Opinion

ID: 9474738
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:07:27.787158+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:18.445727
License: Public Domain

GEORGE C. PRATT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent and would hold the government liable for the negligence of its employees alleged in this case. The majority has barred this claim by six year old Melissa Johnson, who was sexually molested in her own neighborhood by a postal worker on his rounds, as one “arising out of an assault and battery”. 28 U.S.C. § 2680(h). In doing so, the opinion neglects the facts, deemed to be true here, that it was a government employee who assigned the postal worker, Ojeda, as a letter carrier in Melissa’s residential neighborhood with knowledge of his perverted propensities and tendencies, that Ojeda “on various occasions * * * sexually molested and sodomized” Melissa, and that Ojeda’s superiors were negligent in hiring, assigning, and supervising him.
In general terms, the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) waived the government’s historic sovereign immunity and provided that the United States shall be liable for the negligent acts of any of its employees “in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances”. 28 U.S.C. § 2672, 2674. The Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected a policy of strict construction for this act and has held that it should be construed generously so as to accomplish congress’s purpose and policy in waiving an archaic immunity, giving due regard, of course, to the statutory exceptions to that policy. United States v. Aetna Surety Co., 338 U.S. 366, 383, 70 S.Ct. 207, 216, 94 L.Ed. 171 (1949); Rayonier, Inc. v. United States, 352 U.S. 315, 320 & n. 3, 77 S.Ct. 374,377 & n. 3, 1 L.Ed.2d 354 (1957); United States v. Yellow Cab Co., 340 U.S. 543, 554, 71 S.Ct. 399, 406, 95 L.Ed. 523 (1951).
Specifically at issue here is whether the exception in section 2680(h) of claims arising out of assault and battery should bar a claim based on the “negligence”, not of the assaulter, as in Lambertson v. United States, 528 F.2d 441 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 426 U.S. 921, 96 S.Ct. 2627, 49 L.Ed.2d 374 (1976); Blitz v. Boog, 328 F.2d 596 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 855, 85 S.Ct. 106, 13 L.Ed.2d 58 (1964); and Gaudet v. United States, 517 F.2d 1034 (5th Cir.1975), all relied upon in the majority opinion, but of another government employee who was responsible for hiring, assigning, and supervising the assaulter.
Prior to this case the issue was open in this circuit. Panella v. United States, 216 F.2d 622 (2d Cir.1954), established that § 2680(h) did not retain governmental immunity against a claim for injuries arising from an assault and battery by one inmate of a government hospital against another, since the government had negligently failed to perform its duty of supervision. The majority here, as have some other courts, e.g., Collins v. United States, 259 F.Supp. 363, 364 (E.D.Pa.1966), interpret Judge (later Justice) Harlan’s example postulated in Panella, 216 F.2d at 624, as authority for barring any suit involving an assault by a government employee. But Judge Harlan’s view does not seem to have been so restrictive. What was fatally missing, in his view, from his hypothecated claim based on an assault committed by a government employee, was conduct whose essence was negligence. But his example did not consider the possibility of negligent supervision, and nothing in his analysis requires the extension of § 2680(h) to encompass negligent supervisory conduct.
The scope of section 2680(h)’s exemption also remains an open issue in the Supreme Court. While the problem was squarely presented last term in Shearer v. United States, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 3039, 87 L.Ed.2d 38 (1985), the expansive reading of the § 2680(h) exemption strongly urged by Chief Justice Burger, and now adopted by the majority in this court, could not entice the support of a majority of the Supreme Court, and the case was disposed of on other grounds.
In my view, a proper interpretation of the FTCA, consistent with its broad and remedial purpose, would be to hold the *856government liable, as would be a private person, when its supervisors negligently hire an assaultive employee, assign him to an area of temptation, and negligently fail to foresee and prevent the harm he is likely to inflict on the public. In practical terms, liability in such a situation would create no problems that are distinguishable from many other claims for which the government routinely is held liable. Claims for negligent supervision are no more prone to exaggeration and no more difficult to defend than most automobile accidents; the absence of a jury leaves the case under the firm control of a federal district judge; and punitive damages are not available, 28 U.S.C. § 2674. In short, on this issue I agree with the majority opinion of the third circuit in Shearer v. United States, 723 F.2d 1102, 1107-08 (3rd Cir.1983), that the intentional tort exclusion of section 2680(h) was not intended to apply to a case of this type.
One other point in the majority opinion requires comment: the pleading burden the majority would impose on a plaintiff may well prove to be insurmountable. Pointing to plaintiffs’ allegations that the defendant assigned Ojeda with notice or knowledge of his perverted propensities, the opinion notes that there is no factual basis for this “conclusion”. The opinion notes that the complaint does not state facts indicating that Ojeda had “committed past offenses or manifested previous aberrant behavior that his employers should have detected.” And the majority are “forced to conclude” that the claim does not meet the requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 11, and is based on “pure speculation”.
Nowhere does the majority suggest how plaintiff, presuit, could ever obtain such information. One authoritative source, Ojeda’s personnel file, is in the government’s control, but it usually would be regarded as quasi-confidential and unavailable to an outsider. As a practical matter, therefore, plaintiffs’ attorney would probably be unable to obtain the information required by the majority to satisfy Rule 11 without some form of compelled discovery, discovery which would be available only if the action should survive the inevitable Rule 12 motion by the government. As a result, requiring plaintiff to plead the additional information mentioned in the majority opinion erects a “Catch 22” barrier: no information until litigation, but no litigation without information.
Further, the strict pleading requirement suggested by the majority opinion ignores Rule 9 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Under Rule 9(b), while averments of fraud or mistake must be stated “with particularity”, the rule specifically permits malice, intent, and the state of mind at issue here — knowledge—to be “averred generally.”
Finally, even the majority acknowledges that the type of conduct charged to Ojeda “may be repetitive”, sufficiently so to have “normally prompted an inquiry by the postal service into possible prior incidents.” Opinion, page 7. The experience behind that observation readily translates to judicial notice and in my view, at least, when coupled with the fact of repeated assaults and continued assignment of Ojeda to a residential neighborhood, provides a sufficient good-faith basis for this complaint of negligent supervision of this postal worker to satisfy the requirements of Rule 11.