Metter v. United States, No. 14-2001 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseWhile fishing with his son-in-law and grandson near Gavins Point Dam on the Missouri River in Cedar County, Nebraska, Metter was struck and killed when a parked pickup truck came out of gear and rolled down an unprotected river bank. Metter’s widow, personal representative of his estate, brought survival and wrongful death actions under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. 1346, against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, asserting the Corps negligently maintained the site. The grandson brought a separate suit against the Corps raising the same theories of liability for the mental and physical harms to Justin caused by witnessing his grandfather’s death. The district court dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, finding the claims barred by the FTCA’s discretionary function exception, and that the United States did not waive sovereign immunity. The Eighth Circuit affirmed. The Corps removed the guardrails and posts itself to save money and to expedite a project, reasons that reflect the discretionary exercise of choice and judgment “susceptible to policy analysis.”
Court Description: Riley, Author, with Loken and Smith, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Federal Tort Claims Act. The Corps of Army Engineers' decision to remove guardrails and not post signs during renovations at the Gavins Point Dam on the Missouri River in Cedar County, Nebraska fell within the discretionary function exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act as the action was discretionary and susceptible to policy analysis.
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