FEDERAL TORT CLAIMS ACT

Federal Tort Claims Act.A statute that limits federal sovereign immunity and allows recovery

in federal court for tort damages caused by federal employees, but only if the law of the state

where the injury occurred would hold a private person liable for the injury. 28 USCA §§

2671–2680. — Abbr. FTCA. See sovereign immunity under IMMUNITY(1). [Cases: United

States 78. C.J.S. United States §§ 149–151, 179.]

“Although it has been suggested that the maxim, ‘the King can do no wrong’ never had an

existence in the United States, it has also been declared that in enacting the Federal Tort Claims

Act, Congress recognized the manifold injustice that springs from the delimiting effect of the rule

represented by that maxim. And it is said that in passing the Act, Congress intended to compensate

the victims of negligence in the conduct of governmental activities in circumstances in which a

private person would be liable, rather than leave just treatment to the caprice and legislative

burden of individual private laws, and to eliminate the burden on Congress of investigating and

passing on private bills seeking individual relief.” 35 Am. Jur. 2d Federal Tort Claims Act § 1, at 296 (1967).[Blacks Law 8th]