Federal Tort Claims Act Cases: Recovering for Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury, and Property Damage

Employees and officers of the federal government commit torts like any other member of the public. Injured parties can sue the federal government to recover damages only because under the FTCA, the United States waives sovereign immunity for certain types of common law claims. Examples of actionable claims include medical malpractice, "slip-and-fall," harassment, government misconduct, or destruction of property.

The FTCA, however, provides only a limited waiver of sovereign immunity. The FTCA waives immunity for acts of federal "employees," and the waiver expressly excludes acts of independent contractors. Whether the tortfeasor is an employee or an independent contractor is often a hotly contested issue, and the circuit and lower courts use many different standards to resolve the issue. Thus, practitioners must understand the law in their jurisdiction and plead the facts to withstand a motion to dismiss or for judgment on the pleadings.

The FTCA does not waive immunity if the employee's acts involved a "discretionary function." Whether a function or act is discretionary is governed by subjective standards in U.S. v. Gaubert, 499 U.S. 315 (1991), and Berkovitz v. U.S., 486 U.S. 531 (1988). Due to the subjectiveness of these "tests," there is no clear consensus at the circuit level regarding when an act involved a discretionary function.

Listen as the panel discusses the FTCA, the prerequisites for a suit, these often litigated jurisdictional exceptions, and how to proceed to the case's merits.