Stratmeyer v. U.S.
| Decision Date | 19 October 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 94-3045,94-3045 |
| Parties | Elmer STRATMEYER and Cornelia Stratmeyer, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Kenneth M. Waterman (argued), Fort Wayne, IN, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Deborah M. Leonard, Office of the United States Attorney, Fort Wayne, IN and Jennifer H. Zacks (argued), Mark Stern, and Steve Frank, Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Section, Washington, DC, for defendant-appellee.
Before EASTERBROOK, RIPPLE and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.
When the plaintiffs, Elmer and Cornelia Stratmeyer, leased cattle from Bookout Holsteins, Inc., they added the Bookout cattle to their own herd. Six months later, the herd had to be destroyed because the cattle were infected by brucellosis. The Stratmeyers filed suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act ("FTCA") against the United States. They claimed that their injuries resulted from the negligent failure of a veterinarian employed by the United States to quarantine the cattle owned by Bookout Holsteins. The district court held that the federal government was not liable under the FTCA for the alleged negligent conduct of its employee, the federal veterinarian. The Stratmeyers have appealed. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
The factual basis of this case is uncontested. Brucellosis is a highly contagious disease that infects cattle and other domestic and wild animals. To help combat the disease, the Indiana State Board of Animal Health ("Board") and the United States Department of Agriculture ("USDA") established, in 1976, a cooperative plan called the Brucellosis Eradication Program. 1 See Memorandum of Understanding between the Board and the USDA, R. 83, Ex. 2. The state veterinarian manages the program in Indiana, and the USDA provides resources and personnel to assist the state in carrying out the program. In 1982, when the events giving rise to this action were taking place, authority for the brucellosis testing of cattle herds was in the hands of the state veterinarian. He was required to quarantine individual herds if brucellosis infection was detected. Ind.Code. Sec. 15-2.1-8-11. However, when the state veterinarian issued a quarantine, he was not required to post warnings or notices of the quarantine. Ind.Code Sec. 15-2.1-3-19. See generally Sec. 15-2.1-8.
In 1982, the three decision-makers involved in this case were Dr. Lowell W. Hinchman, the state veterinarian in charge of the Brucellosis Eradication Program in Indiana; Dr. Howard K. Foster, the state epidemiologist, who, under Dr. Hinchman's direction, was delegated the authority to issue quarantines for brucellosis; and Dr. E.V.
Blume, the federal veterinarian assigned by the USDA to assist Dr. Hinchman. In December 1982, three heifers in a group of forty-seven head of cattle owned by Bookout Holsteins, Inc. ("the Bookouts") reacted positively in brucellosis testing. Dr. Blume received a copy of the test chart reporting the animals tested. On or about December 13, 1982, Dr. Foster contacted Dr. Blume and instructed him to quarantine the group of animals in which the three brucellosis reactors were found. The next day Dr. Blume authorized the slaughter of the three reactors and issued the quarantine for the forty-four remaining heifers identified in the test record. He did not investigate whether the forty-four quarantined cattle had had any contact with other Bookout cattle not quarantined and located elsewhere on the Bookout farm.
Also in December 1982, the plaintiffs, Elmer and Cornelia Stratmeyer, residents of South Dakota, entered into an arrangement with Ag Assets, Inc., a New York corporation that acts as an agent between dairy farmers. Ag Assets leases dairy cows owned by one dairy operator to another dairy operator. In this case, on December 22, 1982, the Stratmeyers entered into a Dairy Cow Lease with Ag Assets; Ag Assets, in turn, purchased fifty-two head of cattle from the Bookouts and shipped them directly to the Stratmeyers' farm in Lennox, South Dakota. The Bookouts did not notify Ag Assets of the recently imposed quarantine on forty-four of their cattle and the slaughter of three brucellosis-infected reactors. Both Robert Bookout and Ag Assets assured the Stratmeyers that the cattle were healthy. On December 19, 1982, a private veterinarian tested one hundred eleven of the Bookouts' cattle for brucellosis and certified that they were free of the disease. The fifty-two head of cattle sent to the Stratmeyers, therefore, had received the health certificates required for interstate shipping before they reached the Stratmeyers.
The Stratmeyers had thirty head of their own dairy cattle that had never been vaccinated for brucellosis. When the leased cattle arrived on December 24, 1982, the Stratmeyers commingled the Bookout cattle with their own. After they discovered brucellosis-positive reactor cows in the herd in June 1983, the entire herd had to be destroyed. The Stratmeyers successfully sued the Bookouts and received damages of $133,000. They settled their claims against the Bookouts' veterinarian for $7,000, and received $19,850 in indemnity payments from the federal government in exchange for the destruction of their herd. In this action, they now claim damages for more than $380,000 from the federal government for past costs and future losses due to deprivation of future calf and milk production and loss of their livelihood as dairy farmers. The Stratmeyers' contentions are that Dr. Blume, the federal veterinarian, was negligent in failing to inspect, to quarantine and to label brucellosis-diseased cattle on the Bookout farm; in failing to quarantine the entire herd; in failing to warn prospective customers of the brucellosis; and in permitting the shipment of diseased cattle.
The district court granted the federal government's motion for summary judgment. The court noted first that, under the state brucellosis law in Indiana, the state or federal veterinarian quarantining animals for brucellosis was acting under the direction of the state epidemiologist, Dr. Foster, who in turn was authorized to issue quarantines as the agent for state veterinarian, Dr. Hinchman. The federal government, the court pointed out, did not have authority to quarantine under either federal or Indiana law.
In the district court's view, the threshold issue in this case, whether the federal government owed a duty to the Stratmeyers, was also the dispositive one. The court recognized that, under the FTCA, the federal government was liable for the negligence of its employees to the same extent as a private individual in like circumstances. After reviewing other case law for "like circumstances," the district court concluded that this case was most similar to two Washington state cases in which the government was held not liable to dairy operators who received brucellosis-infected cows because, under the public duty doctrine, the government owed no duty to the farmers. 2 The district court Turning to the Stratmeyers' contention that Dr. Blume was negligent, the district court stated that the alleged negligence was based on Dr. Blume's performance of a law enforcement function under Indiana law. The court then concluded that, under Indiana's public duty doctrine, as described by the Indiana Supreme Court in Greathouse v. Armstrong, 616 N.E.2d 364, 368 (Ind.1993), "the Federal Government will have no liability to the Stratmeyers unless it can somehow be shown that the Board, or the State Veterinarian, or Dr. Blume owed a special duty to them." R. 85 at 18. However, the court determined that those entities owed a duty only to the public as a whole--a duty to conserve and to protect the public health and welfare of Indiana citizens. Id. (citing Ind.Code Sec. 15-2.1-1-5). In the same way that the sheriff's department owed a duty to the general public in Greathouse, so too was Dr. Blume's duty one to the public. The court made the following evidentiary determinations concerning Dr. Blume's conduct:
determined that "Indiana's statutory scheme for the eradication of brucellosis was also enacted under this state's police powers and for the protection of the public health," R. 85 at 15 (citing Jones v. State ex rel. Indiana Livestock Sanitary Bd., 240 Ind. 230, 163 N.E.2d 605 (1960)), and that the USDA and the state were cooperating in the brucellosis eradication program.
[W]hile it could be argued that Dr. Blume knew that brucellosis cattle were a potential risk to the general public, he did not know and could not have known, that Bookout cattle would ultimately be sold to the Stratmeyers--particularly since the sale of the cattle occurred after the quarantine. Thus, there is nothing in the record to show that the Stratmeyers had any special relationship with Dr. Blume, or any of the governmental entities, giving rise to an individualized duty.
In fact, the allegations of a special duty regarding failing to properly quarantine, and to warn of a brucellosis outbreak, have been considered and rejected under similar circumstances. Moreover, there is no evidence to support the notion that Dr. Blume negligently permitted the shipment of the diseased cows--that was certainly more the product of Robert Bookout's own skullduggery; indeed, there is nothing in the record that shows that Dr. Blume had any knowledge that the Bookouts were about to ship cattle at all. In other words, there is no showing that Dr. Blume (or the State Veterinarian or the Board) had any special or individualized duty to the Stratmeyers--people whom Dr. Blume did not, and could not, have known about.
R. 85 at 20 (citations omitted). Because the record contains no evidence of a special relationship between the Stratmeyers and Dr. Blume that might trigger an individual duty, the...
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