United States v. Brooks, 5758

Citation169 F.2d 840
Decision Date26 August 1948
Docket Number5759.,No. 5758,5758
PartiesUNITED STATES v. BROOKS (two cases).
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

Paul A. Sweeney, Atty., Dept. of Justice, of Washington, D. C. (Newell A. Clapp, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., David E. Henderson, U. S. Atty., of Charlotte N. C., and Morton Hollander, Atty., Dept. of Justice, of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellant.

Whiteford S. Blakeney, of Charlotte, N C. (Guthrie, Pierce & Blakeney, of Charlotte, N. C., on the brief), for appellees.

Before PARKER and DOBIE, Circuit Judges, and WATKINS, District Judge.

DOBIE, Circuit Judge.

Welker Brooks and James Brooks, as Administrator of the Estate of Arthur Brooks, deceased, filed civil actions in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 921 et seq. The District Judge, sitting without a jury, entered judgments against the United States in favor of Welker Brooks and James Brooks, Administrator of the Estate of Arthur Brooks. The case is before us on the appeal of the United States from these judgments.

About 8 p. m. on February 17, 1945, Welker Brooks and Arthur Brooks, both enlisted men in the United States Army, were driving with their father, a civilian, in their private automobile on a public highway near Fayetteville, North Carolina. Both soldiers were on leave or furlough, engaged in their private concerns and not on any business connected with their military service. The Brooks automobile collided with an Army truck, operated by a civilian employee of the War Department, which was transporting the members of a Fort Bragg band to Fayetteville. Arthur Brooks was killed and Welker Brooks was seriously injured as a result of the collision, which the District Judge held to be due to the negligence of the driver of the Army truck.

The only question we are called upon to decide is whether Welker Brooks and James Brooks, as Administrator of the Estate of Arthur Brooks, deceased, have claims against the United States under the provisions of the Federal Tort Claims Act. We think the District Judge erred by answering this question in the affirmative.

This problem of statutory interpretation is close and difficult, due primarily to the inept draftsmanship on the part of Congress in failing to make clear and express provision as to soldiers in the United States Army.

It seems crystal clear that the claims here in suit fall literally within the comprehensive words "any claim against the United States, for money only" used in § 410(a) of the Act, without any specific limitation as to the classes of persons who have valid claims under the Act. This fact, however, is not in itself determinative of our problem. The proper approach, we think, was admirably stated by District Judge Chesnut, in Jefferson v. United States, D.C., 77 F.Supp. 706, 711, 712: "It is a familiar rule of statutory construction that the merely literal reading of particular words in an Act can be narrowed by construction where, from the whole subject matter of the particular Act and its setting in the whole governmental scheme, the court can see that the literal import of the phrase used is contrary to established policy and would not accord with the real intention of Congress in passing the Act, and for this purpose we may `look to the reason of the enactment and inquire into its antecedent history and give it effect in accordance with its design and purpose, sacrificing, if necessary, the literal meaning in order that the purpose may not fail.' Takao Ozawa v. United States, 260 U.S. 178, 43 S.Ct. 65, 67, 67 L.Ed. 199; United States v. Sweet, 245 U.S. 563, 38 S.Ct. 193, 62 L.Ed. 473; United States v. Arizona, 295 U.S. 174, 55 S.Ct. 666, 79 L.Ed. 1371."

Manifestly, the purpose of any important enactment of Congress is entitled to very great weight in determining the scope of the enactment. Stonite Products Co. v. Melvin Lloyd Co., 315 U.S. 561, 62 S.Ct. 780, 86 L.Ed. 1026. The purpose of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, 60 Stat. 812, of which the Federal Tort Claims Act is Title IV, is said to be: "To provide for increased efficiency in the legislative branch of the Government." Congress, for many years, had been plagued with a veritable flood of private bills authorizing the payment of money for personal injuries or property damage caused by the tortious conduct of employees of the United States. These bills consumed an appreciable portion of Congressional time and energy. And Congress, by its size and organization, was ill fitted to pass fairly upon these bills. § 131 of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 specifically forbids the introduction of such private bills for claims falling within the ambit of the Act.

While private bills for the relief of civilians were indeed legion, exceedingly rare and very far between were such bills for the relief of men in the armed services. In this connection, we may note the following explanatory statement at page 31, Report No. 1400, on S. 2177 (79th Cong., 2d sess.), which became the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946: "With the expansion of governmental activities in recent years, it becomes especially important to grant to private individuals the right to sue the Government in respect to such torts as negligence in the operation of vehicles." (Italics ours.)

The soldier, upon enlistment, acquires a special and unique military status, quite different from any relation between the Federal Government and civilians. United States v. Standard Oil Co. of California, 332 U.S. 301, 305, 67 S.Ct. 1604, 91 L.Ed. 2067; In re Morrissey, 137 U.S. 157, 159, 11 S.Ct. 57, 34 L.Ed. 644; In re Grimley, 137 U.S. 147, 11 S.Ct. 54, 34 L.Ed. 636. The soldier is subject to military discipline even while at play, and his desertion is a serious crime, punishable at times by death. Rarely, if ever, is a soldier referred to by Congress as a "private individual."

Congress has established a complete and comprehensive administrative system of compensation to take care of the death of, or injuries to, servicemen. Monthly pension payments for disabling injuries, pensions to the widow, children or dependent parents for the death of a serviceman, full pay during periods of incapacity, medical attention and hospitalization, life insurance at rates far below the rates of commercial companies, employment preferences, education — all these and many other benefits are distinctly given to servicemen. Nor have the States been niggardly to veterans. Certainly there is force in the suggestion that Congress thought this system of benefits took adequate care of soldiers and intended thereby to exclude soldiers from the right to sue the United States for personal injuries received in the service.

In various statutes by which Congress has established this complete and comprehensive administrative system of compensation for damages resulting from the injury or death of a soldier, it has made no distinction between injuries received while a soldier was on furlough or leave, and injuries received while a soldier was on active duty. If the injury or disease is incurred during the period of his military service, it is service-connected, and is compensable, even though not service-caused. The fact that payments were made by the United States on account of the death of Arthur L. Brooks, and the injuries of his brother Welker, shows the practice where the soldier is on leave.

In cognate Congressional statutes, wherein the United States has waived its traditional immunity from suit for tort claims, these statutes have been judicially interpreted as inapplicable to members of the armed services. Thus, the Public Vessels Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 781 et seq., authorized: "a libel in personam * * * against the United States * * * for damages caused by a public vessel of the United States * * *." Yet it was held that there was no claim against the United States for the death of naval officers. Speaking for a unanimous Court, Circuit Judge Swan, in Dobson v. United States, 2 Cir., 27 F.2d 807, 808, 809, certiorari denied 278 U.S. 653, 49 S.Ct. 179, 73 L.Ed. 563, used this trenchant language:

"Verbally, there is nothing which excludes liability for damage to property or person of officers or crew. * * *

"Nevertheless the construction contended for by appellants involves so radical a departure from the government's long-standing policy with respect to the personnel of its naval forces that we cannot believe the act should be given such a meaning. The statute itself does not specify who may maintain suits under it. To allow suit by the officers and crew of the public vessel for damage caused by it to them would be too great a reversal of policy to be enacted by such general terms. The Act of October 6, 1917, 40 Stat. 389, 34 U.S.C.A. §§ 981, 982, directs the Paymaster General of the Navy to reimburse officers, enlisted men, and others in the naval service who suffer loss or destruction of or damage to their personal property in the naval service * * *.

"Chapter 3, Title 38, United States Code, 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 151-206, provides an elaborate pension system for personal injury and loss of life incurred by officers and enlisted men in the navy. These pensions may be thought an inadequate substitute for the recovery of full damages under the Public Vessels Act of March 3, 1925, but they were well known to all who entered the naval service. * * * If it had been the purpose to change that policy as respects officers and seamen of the navy injured by the unseaworthiness of a public vessel, or by the fault of one another, because that is what in the end it comes to, we cannot think it would have been left to such general language as is to be found in the above-quoted section 1. * * *

"We believe that Congress meant to leave upon the members of the naval forces the same risks of injuries suffered in the service of the...

To continue reading

Request your trial
16 cases
  • Kessler v. United States, Civ. A. No. 80-2002-8.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 4th Circuit. United States District Court of South Carolina
    • May 29, 1981
    ...has already transpired." Brooks v. United States, 337 U.S. 49, 52, 69 S.Ct. 918, 920, 93 L.Ed. 1200 (1949), reversing United States v. Brooks, 169 F.2d 840 (4th Cir. 1948). FINDINGS OF The facts essential to this court's inquiry under Feres have been admitted by the parties and are not subj......
  • Troglia v. U.S.
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)
    • August 24, 1979
    ...reached the Supreme Court was in 1949 in which year that Court accepted on certiorari a case from the Fourth Circuit, United States v. Brooks, 169 F.2d 840 (4th Cir. 1949), wherein two servicemen and their father, a civilian, had been injured, one serviceman fatally, in a collision with a m......
  • Shaw v. U.S.
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (10th Circuit)
    • July 29, 1988
    ...vol. 1, doc. 12, at 5-6. Mr. Shaw contends that Brooks v. United States, 337 U.S. 49, 69 S.Ct. 918, 93 L.Ed. 1200 (1949), rev'g 169 F.2d 840 (4th Cir.1948), is factually similar to the present action. We disagree. In Brooks two servicemen on leave or furlough were riding along a public high......
  • McGowan v. Scoggins, 88-15055
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)
    • November 17, 1989
    ...time of their injuries are barred from recovery under the FTCA. Id. The Fourth Circuit reversed in a divided decision. United States v. Brooks, 169 F.2d 840 (4th Cir.1948). The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and held that the FTCA did not exclude all claims brought by members o......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 books & journal articles
  • INCIDENT TO SERVICE: THE FERES DOCTRINE AND THE UNIFORM CODE OF MILITARY JUSTICE.
    • United States
    • Air Force Law Review No. 81, March 2020
    • March 22, 2020
    ...on any written directive, but on testimony that showed a policy was expected of VA employees). [68] See, e.g., United States v. Brooks, 169 F.2d 840, 847, 849-51 (4th Cir. 1948) (Parker, J., dissenting), rev'd, 337 U.S. 49 (1949). But see Figley, supra note 31, at 456-58 (dismissing the imp......

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT