Moran v. United States, Civ. A. No. 2147

• Decision Date: 10 April 1951
• Docket Number: 2460,2842.,2457,Civ. A. No. 2147,2436
• Citation: 102 F. Supp. 275
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut
• Parties: MORAN v. UNITED STATES, and four other cases.

102 F. Supp. 275

MORAN v. UNITED STATES, and four other cases.

Civ. A. Nos. 2147, 2436, 2457, 2460, 2842.

United States District Court D. Connecticut.

April 10, 1951.

Francis F. McGuire, New London, Conn., for plaintiff Moran.

H. S. MacDonald, New Haven, Conn., for plaintiff Bessette.

Wilfred E. Hoffman, Syracuse, N. Y., for plaintiff Mussell.

William L. Beers, New Haven, Conn., for plaintiff Parker.

Jeremiah D. Shea, New Haven, Conn., for plaintiff Bindloss.

Adrian W. Maher, U. S. Atty., New Haven, Conn., for the United States.

HINCKS, Chief Judge.

These five actions, one for personal injury, one for property damage and three for wrongful death, arise out of the sinking of the fishing vessel Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer on April 6, 1945, as a result of an explosion which occurred as her fishing nets were being hauled alongside. The explosion was allegedly the detonation of an aerial bomb which became entangled in the vessel's nets in navigable waters about ten miles south-southeast of South East Light, Block Island. On information and belief plaintiffs allege that the bomb was deposited in the water by military aircraft during previous experimental and trial bombing runs in the area.

The suits were brought against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1346(b), and are based on allegations of negligence and nuisance. The actions were consolidated for purposes of trial, and the government now moves to dismiss on the ground that the Federal Tort Claims Act does not extend to maritime torts by government employees, and on the further ground that, even if the Act does apply, the three actions for wrongful death are barred because they were not brought within the two-year limitation of the Death on the High Seas Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 761. Each of these contentions raises a question of first impression.

The government insists that the legislative history of the Federal Tort Claims Act shows that it was not meant to apply to any "maritime" or "admiralty" torts and on brief it cites excerpts from the legislative history which include vague language to that general effect. But Sections 401 to 424 of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, 60 Stat. 812, which was, and will be hereinafter referred to as, the "Original", Federal Tort Claims, Act, Id., pg. 842, makes it abundantly plain that the only maritime torts of the United States excepted, Sec. 421 of the Original Act, 60 Stat. 845, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2680, were those for which a remedy was provided by the Suits in Admiralty Act, 46 U.S.C.A. §§ 741-752, and by the Public Vessels Act, 46 U.S.C.A. §§ 781-790: the statutory language makes no exception for other maritime torts. That other maritime torts by employes (as distinguished from vessels) of the United States were intended to be included in the Act is confirmed by the repeal provisions of the Act. Sec. 424 (a) of the Original Act, 60 Stat. 846. To understand the effect of these repeal provisions, it must be remembered that prior to the enactment of the Federal Tort Claims Act, a legislative pattern had developed whereby the heads of many specified executive departments, each by separate Act, were authorized to determine claims not exceeding a moderate specified amount, such as $1,000 or $500, caused by the negligence of a government employee and pay the same from an existing departmental appropriation or certify the amount allowed thereon to Congress for payment. 42 Stat. 1066, 31 U.S.C.A. § 215, was typical of such Acts. But obviously Acts of this nature were superseded by Sec. 403 of the Original (Tort Claims) Act, see 28 U.S.C.A. § 2672 which authorized the department or "federal agency" head not merely to determine such claims and report them for payment but even to "settle" and to pay the same out of his departmental appropriations. And so, naturally, 31 U.S.C.A. § 215, and other similar acts, were expressly repealed by Sec. 424(a) of the Original Act, and by Sec. 424(b) the scope of such repeals was expressly limited to claims within the scope of Sec. 403(a) of the Original Act. Against this background it is highly significant that one of the Acts expressly subjected to limited repeal by Sec. 424(a) of the Original Act was 40 Stat. 705, 34 U.S.C.A. § 600. Section 599 of Title 34 U.S.C.A. under the caption of "Claims for damages occasioned by vessels" gave the Secretary of the Navy power to settle claims not exceeding $3,000 for which naval vessels were found to be responsible. It will thus be seen that the failure of Congress in the Original Act to repeal 34 U.S. C.A. § 599 was wholly consistent with the exception contained in Sec. 421(d) of the Original Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2680(d), of liability for torts by public vessels. But 34 U.S.C.A. § 600, under the caption "Claims for damages not occasioned by vessels" authorized the Secretary of the Navy to determine and pay "all claims for damages (other than such as are occasioned by vessels of the Navy), to and loss of privately owned property, * * * where the amount of the claim does not exceed $500, for which damage or loss men in the naval service or Marine Corps are found to be responsible". Thus by its express language 34 U.S.C.A. § 600 included claims for damages other than such as are occasioned by vessels of the Navy for which naval personnel were responsible: plainly it covered all torts by navy personnel, whether occurring on sea or on land, as distinguished from torts by vessels. The repeal of this act by Sec. 424(a) of the Original Act can only be explained by a Congressional belief and intent that the claims covered by 34 U.S.C.A. § 600 were included in Sec. 403 of the Original Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2672.

The broad language of the Act precludes the narrow construction which the government now advances. When the Act specified that the liability of the government shall be determined "in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred" clear intent was expressed to waive immunity irrespective of the place of the tort. It is significant that the applicable law was not stated to be the law of the State or territory: instead the language used was broad enough to include the maritime law which, of course, is the law of the place applicable to maritime torts. The express exception of "claims arising in a foreign country", stated in 28 U.S.C.A. § 2680(k) is without opposing effect. Indeed, this exception lends strength to the plaintiffs' position: it showed that Congress realized that if the contemplated waiver of immunity were wholly without geographical restriction it would include waiver of immunity from liability for torts committed outside the territorial boundaries of the nation. Consequently, that the exception of torts occurring in foreign countries was not extended to employee torts occurring on the high seas is significant for its bearing on the problem here, and is not in the least inconsistent with anything in the opinion in United States v. Spelar, 338 U.S. 217, 70 S.Ct. 10, 11, 94 L.Ed. 3. It was said there that the "coverage of the Federal Tort Claims Act was geared to the sovereignty of the United States" and that the coverage of the Act was identified "with the scope of United States sovereignty." It is fundamental, of course, that the sovereignty of the United States extends to all things maritime. U.S.C.A.Const. Art. 3, Sec. 2.

The fact that by 28 U.S.C.A. § 1346(b) the district court is given jurisdiction of "civil actions" cannot be taken to mean that the jurisdiction thus conferred is exclusive of the subject-matter of proceedings in admiralty. It is more reasonable to conclude that the term was used in a generic sense to cover all private actions for damages as distinguished from criminal proceedings. Indeed, it should be noted that the Original Act did not speak of "civil actions": it provided for the settlement of claims "for money only * * * on account of damage * * * caused by the negligent" act of a government employee. Sec. 403(a). And it gave jurisdiction to the district courts of "any claim against the United States, for money only * * * on account of damage," etc. Certainly claims for money damages was language broad enough to include claims for maritime torts. Merely because in the process of codification in 1948 the language of the statute was changed so that now the jurisdictional grant is "of civil actions on claims" for money damages, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1346(b), one may not sensibly assume that Congress, having by the Original Act in 1946 given enforceable claims to victims of government negligence on the seas, by the use of the words "civil action" in the Code of 1948 intended to take away the rights so recently created.

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