Morici Corp. v. United States

500 F. Supp. 714, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14471
CourtDistrict Court, D. California
DecidedOctober 31, 1980
DocketCiv. S-77-218-TJM
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 500 F. Supp. 714 (Morici Corp. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morici Corp. v. United States, 500 F. Supp. 714, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14471 (californiad 1980).

Opinion

OPINION

MacBRIDE, District Judge.

As set forth in this court’s earlier Opinion, Mo rici Corp. v. United States, 491 F.Supp. 466 (E.D.Cal.1980) (hereinafter Morici I), plaintiff seeks to recover dam *716 ages of $1,000,000 incurred as a result of the loss of fruit and nut trees and crops on plaintiff’s land located on the banks of the Sacramento River downstream from the facilities of the Central Valley Project. The original complaint alleged in part:

Beginning on or about December 1, 1973, and continuing through April, 1974, defendant, its agents and employees operated the [Central Valley] Project Works negligently, without due or reasonable care, so as to establish and maintain the flow in the Sacramento River above and adjacent to Princeton Ranch [plaintiff’s property] at such high elevations as to cause water in large amounts to seep from the Sacramento River into Princeton Ranch. The seepage was the natural and predictable result of the high elevations.

Complaint at 2.

The United States successfully moved to dismiss the original complaint. As discussed at length in Morici I, this court granted the Government’s motion to dismiss based on the immunity accorded to the United States by 33 U.S.C. § 702c which provides in part:

No liability of any kind shall attach to or rest upon the United States for any damage from or by floods or flood waters at any place ....

The court held that this immunity applies to seepage waters that percolate through the ground as well as to flooding waters flowing on the surface of the earth. In addition, the court ruled that the Central Valley Project is clothed with immunity notwithstanding the multiple purposes for which the Project was authorized and is operated. 1 The court declared:

section 702c immunizes the United States from liability for damages caused by floods deriving from the operation of a multi-purpose river project which has, as one of its purposes, flood control, when the actions giving rise to the damage were undertaken in furtherance of any one of the authorized purposes of the project. This immunity clothes not only the facilities of the multi-purpose Central Valley Project which were specifically authorized and designed in part for flood control but also those other facilities, such as the Trinity River Diversion, which are an integral and essential part of the Project even though not specifically intended to further a flood control purpose, because the Central Valley Project is operated as an integrated whole in furtherance of its many authorized purposes.

Morici Corp. v. United States, supra at 492-93.

The original complaint did not explicitly allege that the operation of the Central Valley Project which gave rise to plaintiff’s damages was in furtherance of one of the purposes of the Project. The court granted leave to amend so that plaintiff could, if it wished, allege that the operation of the Project had not been in furtherance of an authorized purpose. On August 4, 1980, plaintiff filed an amended complaint which alleges in part:

4. The [Central Valley] Project Works are capable of regulating the level of water in the Sacramento River below those works so as to greatly diminish or augment the natural flow of said River, at the direction of the operator. Defendant, its employees and agents, as operators of the Project Works, owed a duty of care to plaintiff to avoid unnecessary and harmful changes in the level of said River due to their operation of the Project Works.
5. Beginning on or about December 1, 1973, and continuing through April 1974, defendant, its agents and employees operated the Project Works negligently, without due and reasonable care, and undertook actions not in furtherance of any of the intended and authorized purposes of *717 the project, so as to establish and maintain the flow in the Sacramento River above and adjacent to Princeton Ranch at such high elevations as to cause water in large amounts to seep from the Sacramento River into Princeton Ranch. The seepage was the natural and predictable result of the high elevations.
6. As a direct and probable result of the negligent acts of defendant’s employees and agents, and their operations of the Project for purposes outside of the intended and authorized purposes of the works, and the seepage which proximately resulted, plaintiff suffered injury and damage ....

Amended Complaint at 2. 2 The amendments of the complaint bring two legal questions into focus for decision: first, does an employee of the United States act “within the scope of his office or employment” for purposes of United States’ liability under the Federal Tort Claims Act when he operates a government facility ultra vires, namely, in a manner either not in furtherance of or contrary to one or more of its intended and authorized purposes, and, second, does 33 U.S.C. § 702c immunize the United States from liability for flood damages that arise from such an ultra vires operation of a multi-purpose government facility intended in part to promote flood control. The court will address both of these questions.

Scope of Employment

The Federal Tort Claims Act provides that the United States shall be liable for money damages for injury or loss of property

caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his office or employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred.

28 U.S.C. § 1346(b); see 28 U.S.C. §§ 2671, 2672, 2675. The choice of law dictates of the Act require that a determination whether a government employee was acting within the scope of his employment for purposes of United States liability is controlled by the respondeat superior principles of the state in which .the alleged tort was committed. Proietti v. Civiletti, 603 F.2d 88, 90 (9th Cir. 1979), citing Williams v. United States, 350 U.S. 857, 76 S.Ct. 100, 100 L.Ed. 761 (1955) (per curiam), and United States v. McRoberts, 409 F.2d 195, 197 (9th Cir. 1969) (per curiam).

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Bluebook (online)
500 F. Supp. 714, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14471, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morici-corp-v-united-states-californiad-1980.