Alaniz v. United States, 5778.
| Decision Date | 28 June 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 5778.,5778. |
| Parties | Henry ALANIZ, Administrator of the Estate of Elias Alaniz, Deceased, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Timothy P. Woolston, Albuquerque, N. M., for appellant.
J. C. Ryan, Asst. U. S. Atty., Albuquerque, N. M. (James A. Borland, U. S. Atty., Albuquerque, N. M., was with him on the brief), for appellee.
Before BRATTON, Chief Judge, and PHILLIPS and BREITENSTEIN, Circuit Judges.
The administrator of the estate of Elias Alaniz, deceased, instituted this action to recover damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346, 2671 et seq., for the wrongful death of the deceased. The cause of action pleaded in the complaint was that some rifles had been stolen from a national guard armory and cached in a cotton field in New Mexico; that a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was in charge of an investigation of the theft; that the special agent appointed a deputy sheriff to act as a non-compensated agent of the United States in connection with such investigation; that on a certain night the special agent and the deputy sheriff were in the cotton field for the purpose of apprehending the thief if he came for the stolen rifles; that the deceased, David Torres, and Domingo Sanchez went in the automobile of the deceased to a point on a country road immediately adjacent to the cotton field; that upon reaching such point, the automobile was stopped and parked; that the deceased and Torres did not know that the rifles had been stolen and cached; that Sanchez got out of the automobile and walked back down the road; that he went into the cotton field; that he discovered the officers waiting for him; that he attempted to escape; that there were shouts and the deputy sheriff shot and "felled" Sanchez; that upon hearing the shouts and shot, the deceased became frightened and started to leave the area; and that without exercising reasonable care in determining who the deceased was or what he was doing there, the deputy sheriff, without provocation, negligently and without reasonably prudent care, shot and killed him. The Government filed a motion for summary judgment. One ground of the motion was that the complaint disclosed upon its face that the cause of action pleaded therein was excluded from the Tort Claims Act, and the other ground was that the United States had not consented to be sued in the cause. Finding that the cause of action pleaded in the complaint was excluded from the Tort Claims Act, and further finding that the deputy sheriff was not an agent of the United States at the material times, the court granted the motion for summary judgment. An appeal was seasonably perfected.
Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c), 28 U.S.C., authorizes the entry of summary judgment if the pleadings, depositions, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. The genius of the rule is to permit the expeditious disposition of cases in which there are no genuine issues of material fact upon which the outcome of the litigation depends. But the rule is not intended to provide a substitute for the regular trial of cases in which there are disputed issues of fact upon which the outcome of the litigation turns. It should be invoked with caution to the end that litigants may be afforded a trial where there exists between them a bona fide dispute of material facts. And the pleadings upon which the motion is based are to be liberally construed in favor of the party against whom the motion is directed. Purity Cheese Co. v. Frank Ryser Co., 7 Cir., 153 F.2d 88. But when the pleadings are construed in that manner, if it appears from the pleadings, depositions, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact upon which the outcome of the litigation depends, the...
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...[the plaintiff] sought to plead was one for wrongful assault and battery resulting in the death of the deceased." Alaniz v. United States, 257 F.2d 108, 110-11 (10th Cir.1958). Here, the tort about which the plaintiffs complain is, in essence, assault and battery, and their allegations of n......
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...the United States fired the shot which wounded plaintiff, he is barred from bringing suit by § 2680(h) of the Act.3 Alaniz v. United States, 257 F.2d 108 (10th Cir. 1958); United States v. Faneca, 332 F.2d 872 (5th Cir. 1964), cert. den, 380 U.S. 971, 85 S.Ct. 1327, 14 L. Ed.2d 268 (1965); ......
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...a bona fide dispute of material facts", Steele v. Nagel, supra, 89 Idaho at 528, 406 P.2d at 808, (quoting from Alaniz v. United States, 257 F.2d 108, 110, (10th Cir.1958), and 'on appeal (from a motion granting summary judgment against him) this court views the evidence in that light most ......
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