Bruneau v. U.S.
| Citation | 150 F.Supp.2d 303 |
| Decision Date | 03 July 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-30242-MAP.,97-30242-MAP. |
| Parties | Richard N. BRUNEAU, Plaintiff v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts |
Stephen Ferrarone, Springfield, MO, for Plaintiff.
Karen L. Goodwin, United States Attorney's Office, Springfield, MO, for Defendant.
MEMORANDUM REGARDING DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
Plaintiff Richard N. Bruneau has brought this action against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. §§ 2671 et seq., for injuries he sustained in a fire rescue training course run by the Air Force. The government has moved for summary judgment, arguing that the claim is barred by the "discretionary function" exception to the FTCA's waiver of sovereign immunity. 28 U.S.C. § 2680(a) (1994). Unfortunately, although the government's negligence is arguable, and Bruneau's injuries are significant, the government's motion must be allowed. The decisions of the Air Force that allegedly caused plaintiff's injuries allowed room for the exercise of discretion, and were susceptible to policy-related analysis. They therefore meet the requirements of the discretionary function exception and bar his claim.
Richard Bruneau was a firefighter in the Massachusetts Air National Guard. In April, 1995, he enrolled in an advanced fire rescue course at the Air Force Fire Academy in San Angelo, Texas. Bruneau had extensive military and firefighting experience at the time he enrolled in the course. He had spent several years in the Navy, part of the time teaching survival, evasion, resistance and escape ("SERE") to special forces trainees, and also as an instructor for the Navy SEALs. At some point after his military career he became a prison guard, but eventually took a pay cut to become a firefighter at the Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield, Massachusetts. By all accounts, Bruneau was a dedicated and ambitious firefighter. He enrolled in the Texas course to improve his abilities, to better serve his department, and to advance his firefighting career.
The Texas course was intended to train students in "confined space rescue operations" and the use of a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). A confined space rescue operation is a rescue from a tight space, such as a collapsed building, where movement is difficult and the dangers of smoke inhalation are great. It was a demanding course reserved for students, like Bruneau, who had already completed basic firefighting instruction.
On the first day of the course, April 6, Bruneau and his fellow students were instructed on use of the SCBA. On the following day, Bruneau alleges, despite the lack of any further preliminary instruction, the course leapt to a rigorous test in a confined space "trainer." The trainer, known as a "Fun House" among Air Force personnel, was a building consisting of darkened tunnels with obstacles and ramps. Bruneau and his classmates were required to navigate their way through the extremely tight spaces in the darkened trainer in 15 minutes while breathing through an SCBA apparatus. They were to do so alone and without a lamp or ropes to guide them.
When it was his turn, Bruneau entered the trainer and crawled up to a second floor landing. As he started to proceed from the landing, he toppled over an incline he could not see and became wedged next to a wall. As he struggled to get up, remove his pack and crawl back up the incline, he experienced severe neck pain.
Bruneau was immediately removed from the trainer and told to rest. After being examined by an emergency medical technician, he indicated that his neck felt somewhat better and agreed to continue on to the next training ground, an obstacle course. After completing the first five portions of the course, Bruneau collapsed in pain and was taken away by ambulance.
The accident in the trainer caused severe damage to Bruneau's back, neck, arm, elbow and head. After multiple operations, he is left with constant pain in his elbow, requiring pain medications and intramuscular shots which have a side effect of significantly reducing the strength of his left hand. He has not been able to perform active duty as a firefighter since the day of the accident.
A court may properly allow a motion for summary judgment where "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with 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." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Goldman v. First Nat'l Bank of Boston, 985 F.2d 1113, 1116 (1st Cir.1993). Initially, the moving party must show "that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). In order to avoid summary judgment, the nonmoving party carries the burden of establishing a genuine issue of material fact as to every element of the case. See Mesnick v. General Elec. Co., 950 F.2d 816, 825 (1st Cir.1991). In determining whether a genuine issue exists for trial, facts and inferences from facts are to be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-movant. See Diaz v. City of Fitchburg, 176 F.3d 560, 561 (1st Cir.1999).
The Federal Tort Claims Act is the sole mechanism to obtain damages from the federal government for negligence to individuals. Before the enactment of the FTCA in 1946, the government was immune from all tort suits because of the general rule of "sovereign immunity"—the government may not be subjected to suit against its will. See Dalehite v. United States, 346 U.S. 15, 24-25, 73 S.Ct. 956, 97 L.Ed. 1427 (1953). The idea of sovereign immunity derives from the British legal fiction that "the King can do no wrong," Feather v. The Queen, 122 Eng. Rep. 1191, 1205 (Q.B.1865), and therefore can never appear as a defendant in "his" own courts. See United States v. Lee, 106 U.S. 196, 208, 1 S.Ct. 240, 27 L.Ed. 171 (1882).1 Despite its lack of clear textual support in the Constitution and its conflict with the fundamental American concept of popular sovereignty, the doctrine has firmly transplanted itself onto American soil, both as to the federal government and the states. See generally College Sav. Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Educ. Expense Bd., 527 U.S. 666, 119 S.Ct. 2219, 144 L.Ed.2d 605 (1999); Idaho v. Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho, 521 U.S. 261, 117 S.Ct. 2028, 138 L.Ed.2d 438 (1997). The only way the United States may be sued is if it consents to suit, through Congressional enactment or waiver in a particular case.
To be sure, our tradition as a constitutional republic has lead to some discomfort with a rule that is, as Justice Breyer has observed, "more akin to the thought of James I than of James Madison." College Sav. Bank, 527 U.S. at 704, 119 S.Ct. 2219 (Breyer, J., dissenting). This discomfort has produced a maze of judicially-recognized exceptions to state and federal sovereign immunity. See, e.g., Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971) (); Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908) (). However, a detailed navigation of the exceptions to sovereign immunity is unnecessary here. This controversy concerns only the extent of an explicit Congressional waiver of immunity.
Before the enactment of the FTCA, the only way an injured person could receive compensation for the torts of government agents was through a private bill in the Congress. See The Federal Tort Claims Act: A Proposal for Institutional Reform, 100 COLUM. L. REV. 1538, 1540 (2000). As the federal government expanded its activities in the early part of the last century, however, "its agents caused a multiplying number of ... wrongs which would have been actionable if inflicted by an individual or a corporation but [were] remediless solely because their perpetrator was an officer or employee of the Government." Feres v. United States, 340 U.S. 135, 139-40, 71 S.Ct. 153, 95 L.Ed. 152 (1950). As a result, Congress was flooded with thousands of private bills every year, causing a strain on its resources. See Dalehite, 346 U.S. 15, 25 n. 9, 73 S.Ct. 956, 97 L.Ed. 1427 (1953).2 Because of the substantial amount of time these bills took away from legislative matters, combined with the sense that the government should avoid the appearance of political favoritism in providing such compensation, Congress chose to open the government to liability in the federal courts. See Levine, supra at 1539 n. 7.
The FTCA's waiver of sovereign immunity provides that "[t]he United States shall be liable ... in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances...." 28 U.S.C. § 2674 (1994). This broad promise of liability, however, is subject to several exceptions. The broadest and most malleable of these is the "discretionary function" exception, which reserves the United States' immunity regarding any act based upon a government employee's exercise of discretion. See 28 U.S.C. § 2680(a). It shields any government act
based upon the exercise or performance or the failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function or duty on the part of a federal agency or an employee of the Government, whether or not the discretion involved be abused.
Id. In other words, no matter how negligently a government employee may have acted, if his or her acts or omissions were part of the employee's "discretionary...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Santana-Rosa v. U.S., 02-2512.
...the government will be shielded from liability, no matter how negligently an employee may have acted. See, e.g., Bruneau v. United States, 150 F.Supp.2d 303, 308 (D.Mass.2001). The elastic nature of the discretionary function exception extends the government's protection from liability to a......
-
Northern Voyager Partnership v. Thames Shipyard, Civil Action No. 99-12243-RWZ.
...of government discretion, but they also pose a danger to the separation of the judicial and political branches. Bruneau v. United States, 150 F.Supp.2d 303, 308 (D.Mass.2001). Plaintiffs' reliance on Indian Towing, Co. v. United States, 350 U.S. 61, 76 S.Ct. 122, 100 L.Ed. 48 (1955), for th......