Domestic and International Aviation Law Questions Over Chapter Nine

.doc

School

LeTourneau University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

4613

Subject

Law

Date

Apr 3, 2024

Type

doc

Pages

Uploaded by SuperPenguin464

Domestic and International Aviation Law Questions Over Chapter Nine 1. Compare and contrast the vicarious liability of the federal government for the consequences of torts committed by its employees with the same liability of employers in the private sector. The vicarious liability of the federal government for the consequences of torts committed by its employees are:  Negligence of government employees who are  Acting within the scope of their employment with the federal government  If a private employer would be liable for that employee’s torts under the same circumstances. In contrast, there are several exceptions that distinguish the government’s liability from that faced by employers in the private sector:  Geographic Limitation: The FTCA specially excludes claims arising in a foreign country. This limitation has served to prevent the federal government from being sued.  Combatant Activity: The FTCA does not apply to “any claim arising out of the combatant activities of the military or naval forces, or the Coast Guard, during time of war.”  Activities Incident to Military Service: The federal government is not liable for the negligent conduct of government employees if the person killed or injured was engaged in an “activity incident to [that person’s] military service.”  Discretionary Function: The government would not be liable for the consequences of negligent or wrongful conduct by government employees performing a discretionary function.  Intentional Torts: The government is not liable under FTCA for intentional torts committed by its employees, nor are those employees immunized by FTCA against liability for their intentional torts.  Punitive or Exemplary Damages: Under FTCA, the federal government is not exposed to the risk of punitive or exemplary damages. 2. Compare and contrast the personal liability for the consequences of torts committed by individual federal employees with that of individual employees in the private sector. Unliked employees of private enterprise, individual federal employees enjoy protection from personal liability for the consequences of their on-the-job negligence. Federal law now provides that whenever a federal employee is sued personally for negligence in the performance of a federal job, the U.S. Attorney will substitute the United States for the named employee as defendant, and defend the case in its own name. Federal employees enjoy a rare situation in America Law in which a person does not face the risk of personal liability for his own negligence. In contrast in the private industry, both the employer and the employee can be held liable for the consequences of the employee’s on-the-job negligence. 3. Your best friend from college was in ROTC and on graduation was commissioned as an officer and trained as a fighter pilot. Your friend experienced an engine failure on takeoff from an air base in Afghanistan and was killed when the aircraft’s ejection seat failed to function. Your friend’s spouse, who is very worried about how to support the couple’s two young children, asks whether you think they might be able to successfully

sue the federal government or anybody else for your friend’s death. Analyze the potential legal liabilities for each of the following causation scenarios, showing your reasoning: a. The ejection seat failure was determined to have been caused by a design defect incorporated in the specifications provided to the manufacturer by the United States. The spouse cannot sue the government because it is not liable for “combatant activity and activities incident to military service,” but contractor could be liable if knew about design defect or improperly built the equipment. However, the manufacturer is not liable if the part was built to specification and the company did not know about the defect. b. The failure was determined to have been caused by an assembly line worker in the ejection seat manufacturer’s plant, who assembled the trigger mechanism incorrectly. In this case, strict liability on manufacturer if the equipment was delivered in a defective condition due to improper assembly. 4. You are an air traffic controller employed by the Federal Aviation Administration. An aircraft crashes in your operational sector, and an attorney for persons injured in the crash sues you personally for negligence, claiming that the instructions you gave the pilot caused the crash. Will the U.S. Attorney help you? Yes. How? The federal government may be liable under FTCA because air traffic controllers are not covered under the discretionary function. They are responsible to exercise an ordinary degree of care. The case may be resolve by referencing the Air Traffic Controllers Handbook. It needs to be proven that the controller’s negligence was the proximate cause of the accident. 5. What is a discretionary function ? It is an exercise of judgement in the nature of making government policy. What other kind of exercise of judgment is there? Distinguish. Planning and policy making do not subject the federal government to liability under FTCA, even if the plan or policy subsequently causes an accident. 6. What difference does it make whether a government employee’s activities alleged to have contributed to cause an aircraft accident were a discretionary function or not? Congress has specifically provided in the FTCA that the government would not be liable for the consequences of negligent or wrongful conduct by government employees performing a discretionary function. This act applies only to employees of the government. 7. A midair collision occurs within the Class D airspace of a local airport that has a control tower operated by the FAA. Visibility at the time of the accident was three miles, and both aircraft had radioed the tower a minute or two before the collision, reporting similar positions. Each obtained landing instructions and the tower warned the second aircraft that another aircraft had reported inbound from the same area. The aircraft were not yet visible to the tower controllers when the collision occurred. One of the distraught tower controllers later lamented to the news media: “I told Washington months ago that we needed radar at this tower and that if we didn’t get it pretty soon, there was probably going to be a midair collision. If only we’d had radar, we could have kept those planes apart.” Can the survivors of the people who died in the collision reasonably hope to successfully sue the federal government for the FAA’s negligence in not installing air traffic radar at this airport? Explain. If the negligence of an air traffic controller employed by the federal government causes or contributes to an aircraft accident, the federal government may be held liable under the FTCA. 8. During night operations under Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) at a busy major airline hub having a control tower operated by the FAA, the local controller clears

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help