Federal Tort Claims Act

Federal Tort Claims Act

This Act was enacted in 1946 for removing the federal government's inherent immunity from the TORT actions that have been brought against it and has also established the various conditions for commencing these types of suits. According to this Act, a person is permitted to sue United States government for loss or injury of property, money damages, personal death or injury due to the omission, wrongful act and negligence of employee of United States government during their scope of employment. The private person will become liable to the claim according to the law where omission occurred (legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com).

This Act of Congress allowed that the Federal Government could be sued. The Congress also defined certain exceptions towards the Act. The sovereign immunity of the Federal Government was waived by the consent to be sued. In a case in 1907, the justice explained that a sovereign should be exempted from the suit based on the practical and logical ground that no legal rights can exist against the authority which is responsible for making the law. The government was given the sovereign immunity by the Supreme Court in 1821.

In the nineteenth century, the Congress allowed the government to be sued for some actions. The Court of Claims was established in 1855 for the purpose of entertaining the contract actions against the federal government. The Tucker Act in 1887 increased the jurisdiction of court to include various nontort actions. However, in 1946, the readily accessible remedy regarding the tort actions were absent from United States citizens. The recourse was developed in a way that the Congress members could introduce various private bills for individuals that have received an injury due to the negligence of the government. It was eventually realized that this private bill method did not deal effectively with the problems and hence passed the FTCA (www.answers.com).

According to this Act, any person who claims that he has been caused injury by an employee of the government, he must file a lawsuit to the FTCA. When the lawsuit has been filed, it becomes the affected person's remedy irrespective of any type of statute that impliedly or expressly permits various actions against the agency. The federal judge in this case hears the case without the presence of a jury.

The sovereign immunity has not been waived categorically in the FTCA. The act has thirteen exceptions which releases the government from any type o liability such as losing letters in the post office, enforcing unconstitutional statutes, damages due to Treasury Department's fiscal operations, military's actions during war, custom duties collection, intentional torts and the claims that rise in foreign countries.

The most important exception is the discretionary function exception of FTCA. Based on this exception, the waiving of the immunity is not for any claim on the basis of the performance or exercise or the failure in terms of performing a discretionary function on the part of employee of the government or the federal ...