Gilliam v. United States

264 F. Supp. 7, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7241
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Kentucky
DecidedFebruary 20, 1967
DocketNo. 1608
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 264 F. Supp. 7 (Gilliam v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gilliam v. United States, 264 F. Supp. 7, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7241 (E.D. Ky. 1967).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

SWINFORD, Chief Judge.

On November 12, 1964, Margaret M. Gilliam filed an action in the Knox County, Kentucky Circuit Court against the defendants, Carolyn H. Friend, Admin-istratrix of the Estate of Noah R. Friend, deceased, and Lee Roy Gray. The plaintiff claimed damages in the sum of $75,746.12 and her costs in the action, which she alleged to be the result of the joint and concurrent negligence of the defendants. The allegations of her complaint are as follows:

“2. That at or about the hour of 5:55 P.M., on November 13,1963, the decedent, Noah R. Friend, was operating a 1962 [8]*8Oldsmobile automobile in a southerly direction on a public highway known as U. S. 25E at or near the intersection thereof with Kentucky State Highway 223 in Knox County, Kentucky; and that at the time and place and upon the occasion as aforesaid, Plaintiff was a passenger in said automobile owned by decedent, Noah R. Friend, and operated by him, as aforesaid.

“3. That at the time and place and upon the occasion described in paragraph 2, above, Defendant, Lee Roy Gray, was operating a 1959 Chevrolet truck.

“4. That as a result of the joint, separate and concurrent negligence of the decedent, Noah R. Friend, and the defendant, Lee Roy Gray, the vehicle being operated by the decedent, Noah R. Friend, and in which Plaintiff was riding, and the vehicle being operated by Defendant, Lee Roy Gray, were caused to collide.”

On December 30, 1966, Carolyn H. Friend, Administratrix of the Estate of Noah R. Friend, deceased, filed a petition for removal to this court pursuant to Subsection (d) of Section 2679, Title 28, United States Code. Her petition further alleged that there was attached to it a certification by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky that defendant’s decedent was acting within the scope of his employment at the time of the alleged occurrence. On the same day, the United States, by its attorney, George I. Cline, filed a motion for substitution, setting forth that the defendant’s decedent was acting within the scope of his employment with the United States and that Section 2679(b), Title 28, United States Code, made the exclusive remedy against the United States as provided by Section 1346(b), Title 28, United States Code.

It is seen from the record that the petition for removal was not filed for more than two years after Margaret M. Gilliam filed her original action in the state court. The record is before the court on the motion of the defendant, United States of America, to dismiss the action on the ground that at the time and place of the alleged accident, negligence and damages, the plaintiff was an employee of the defendant, United States of America, and as such employee was within the jurisdiction and purview of 39 Stat. 742, as amended, 5 U.S.C. § 751 et seq.; that this statute is an exclusive remedy and precludes the plaintiff from suing the defendant under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b), 2671 et seq.

I concede that the position of the United States is not without legal reasoning and logic and is supported by substantial authority. The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (5 U.S.C. § 751 et seq.), it is urged by the United States, provides that this Act is the exclusive remedy for an employee injured by a fellow employee and that she has no common law right or statutory right to seek other redress. In support of this position there is cited Johansen v. United States, 343 U.S. 427, 72 S.Ct. 849, 96 L.Ed. 1051 (1952); Patterson v. United States, 359 U.S. 495, 79 S.Ct. 936, 3 L.Ed.2d 971 (1959); and United States v. Demko, 385 U.S. 149, 87 S.Ct. 382, 17 L.Ed.2d 259 (1966).

Notwithstanding these cases, however, it is my conclusion that they do not determine the issue presented by the factual situation and I prefer to follow a former ruling of this court in a similar case styled Mary E. Green v. Wilbur D. Short (unpublished), Civil Action No. 1107 on the Covington Docket, decided February 12, 1965. In that case, the court, speaking through the undersigned judge said:

“The first question which the Court wants to dispose of is this matter of liability bn the part of the United States under the record as disclosed. As I stated formerly, I am of the opinion that none of the cases that have been called to my attention meet the situation presented here. The cases to which counsel has referred and of which the Court has some knowledge and familiarity, the Johansen case, 343 U.S. 427, [72 S.Ct. 849], and [9]*9the other cases referred to by counsel, did not present, in my opinion, this exact situation. They were cases in which there was sought a recovery against the United States directly and in which actions had been brought to recover money growing out of alleged personal injuries caused by negligence of an employee. Under the Federal Torts Claim Act, I can understand an employee of the United States could not sue the United States under this compensation act, but this is a ease in which this plaintiff has brought an action against an individual. So far as her case is concerned, nothing is said about his being a federal employee or about his being in any way covered by any of the benefits of the statutes, because he is an employee. She just sued Mr. Short for alleged injury, according to her complaint as set out here, that was filed in the Gallatin Circuit Court, growing out of the negligent operation of an automobile.

“Now we find a situation in which if the Court followed the reasoning of the United States Attorney’s argument would deny Miss Green any right of recovery at all, irrespective of how gross the negligence, irrespective of how seriously she may have been injured, she would have no grounds for recovery. All she could expect would be under the compensation law, payment for her hospital bill and medical expenses. I can’t conceive of placing a construction or interpretation upon an act of Congress made primarily for the protection of its own employees that would deny another employee a right to make a claim for a just recovery. This woman had a right at common law, she had a right of action at common law, and here by a strained, as I believe, construction, she is denied that right without any direct and express act of Congress on the point. In other words, while they pay to her her hospital bill and medical expenses, they say to her, ‘We are going to construe this law and the Congress intends in this law to deny an employee of the United States any right to recover for personal injuries solely on the ground that you are an employee of the United States Government.’ It is a very ancient legal maxim that there shall be no wrong without a remedy.

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Related

Polishuk v. Beavin
444 S.W.2d 140 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1969)
Margaret M. Gilliam v. United States
407 F.2d 818 (Sixth Circuit, 1969)
Sammy J. Vantrease v. United States
400 F.2d 853 (Sixth Circuit, 1968)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
264 F. Supp. 7, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gilliam-v-united-states-kyed-1967.