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Carrie S. Willis, Individually and as Trustee of the Trust of James C. and Norma D. Willis v. United States
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, No. 20-2047 · judgment April 2, 2021
Before the decision, about 1.5× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a circuit split argued in the petition, an Eighth Circuit decision below, and counsel who has filed here before.
Questions presented
The Federal Tort Claims Act is the primary, and often the only, avenue for relief for those harmed by the torts of government agents. The FTCA waives the United States’ sovereign immunity for state-law tort claims arising from such acts, 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b)(1), unless those claims are premised on a government agent’s performance of discretionary (rather than mandatory) functions, id. § 2680(a). This petition presents the following two questions about the scope of that exception:
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Whether the discretionary-function exception shields the Government from suit whenever a government agent fails to fulfill a mandatory duty that applies only in certain circumstances, on the theory that the agent must have determined those circumstances did not exist.
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Whether the discretionary-function exception shields a government agent’s undisputed failure to exercise discretion.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Kendall Kelly Alexis Turner
O'Melveny & Myers LLP
For respondent
Elizabeth B. Prelogar
Solicitor General
Case
Subject area
Economic Activity (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)
Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference
Order
Order list, December 6, 2021 · Certiorari denied
Proceedings
- Dec 06 2021Petition DENIED.
- Nov 16 2021DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/3/2021.
- Nov 15 2021Reply of petitioner Carrie S. Willis, Individually and as Trustee of the Trust of James C. and Norma D. Willis filed. (Distributed)
- Nov 01 2021Brief of respondent United States in opposition filed.
- Sep 16 2021Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including November 1, 2021.
- Sep 15 2021Motion to extend the time to file a response from September 30, 2021 to November 1, 2021, submitted to The Clerk.
- Aug 27 2021Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due September 30, 2021)