Close v. United States
| Decision Date | 13 May 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 21188.,21188. |
| Parties | Harold S. CLOSE, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Joel M. Finkelstein, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom David G. Bress, U. S. Atty., and Frank Q. Nebeker, Asst. U. S. Atty., were on the brief, for appellee.
Before EDGERTON, Senior Circuit Judge, and DANAHER and McGOWAN, Circuit Judges.
Appellant sued in the District Court to recover damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b), for permanent disablement caused by a fall in the District of Columbia Jail allegedly due to defective shoes. In February of 1964 appellant was convicted of a federal crime in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Sentenced to imprisonment for 15 years, appellant was, as provided by law, committed to the custody of the Attorney General, or his authorized representative, for the service of his sentence. The Attorney General then placed him in the District of Columbia Jail where the accident occurred in December of 1965. On July 26, 1966, he was transported to the Federal Penitentiary at Springfield, Missouri, where he presently is in the care of the United States Medical Center at that institution.
Appellee moved to dismiss the complaint upon the ground that the Federal Tort Claims Act waived the immunity of the United States from suit only in respect of negligent acts or omissions of its agencies or employees. An affidavit by an officer of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, submitted in support of the motion, asserted that the D.C. Jail is not under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government but is, rather, an instrumentality of the D.C. Government. On these papers alone the District Court granted the motion.
Had appellant been placed immediately after sentence in a federal prison, the complaint would have stated a cause of action. United States v. Muniz, 374 U.S. 150, 83 S.Ct. 1850, 10 L.Ed.2d 805 (1963). The question is, then, whether his temporary commitment to the D.C. Jail pending the outcome of his appeal relieved the United States of any responsibility for his allegedly neglectful treatment during his stay in that facility. More particularly the issue is whether, because Congress authorized the Attorney General to use the D.C. Jail for incarceration of federal prisoners in his custody, and the D.C. Jail to receive them, Congress is to be taken as having suspended for the time being the availability to appellant of the Federal Tort Claims Act.
We think not. It is not claimed that the D.C. Jail is a contractor of the Federal Government within the meaning of the contractor exception of the FTCA.1 Since the Congress has clearly committed the custody and safekeeping of...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
McCall v. Swain
...or permanently in the service of the United States, whether with or without compensation.' * * * Close v. United States, 130 U.S.App.D.C. 125, 126, 397 F.2d 686, 687 (1968) (per curiam) (emphasis added). See also Witt v. United States, 2 Cir., 462 F.2d 1261, 1264 (1972); Fitzgerald v. Sigle......
-
Thompson v. Dilger
...cases relied upon by plaintiffs in support of this argument, Witt v. United States, 462 F.2d 1261 (2d Cir.1972), and Close v. United States, 397 F.2d 686 (D.C.Cir.1968), were essentially overruled by Logue. See Logue, 412 U.S. at 532 n. 8, 93 S.Ct. at 2222 n. 8. Although Logue focused more ......
-
Williamson v. Sartain, CV-81-130-GF.
...that the employees of that agency are not employees of the United States for purposes of the F.T.C.A. See, e.g., Close v. United States, 397 F.2d 686, 687 (D.C.Cir. 1968). Whereas this rationale would have been applicable to the CAP and its members prior to the enactment of the 1980 amendme......
-
Cannon v. U.S.
...May 17, 1978) (order denying motion to dismiss); R. 14. In doing so, it relied on a prior opinion of this court, Close v. United States, 397 F.2d 686 (D.C.Cir.1968), which held that a federal prisoner temporarily lodged in the District of Columbia Jail could sue under the Act for injuries d......