Jade Mound, et al. v. United States

Petitioners brought claims against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b), 2671 et seq. based on the United States’ failure to warn of a known, latent danger posed by a failing culvert underlying a road maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. After the culvert collapsed in the middle of the night, and with no warning to heed, multiple people were killed or injured when they drove their cars into the resulting chasm. Citing mere budgetary considerations, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held the Act’s discretionary function exception shields the federal government from liability. That ruling deepens an entrenched conflict among the circuit courts, which are divided on this important federal question: When the government is alleged to have tortiously neglected to warn the public of a known, latent danger, whether the de minimis cost of posting such a warning is sufficient to render that omission an exercise of political, social, economic judgment exempt from suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act.