Berkovitz et al. v. United States (486 U.S. 531)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 13, 1988 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 486 U.S. 531 · 108 S. Ct. 1954
- Decided
- June 13, 1988
- Term
- October Term 1987
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Marshall
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court. The question in this case is whether the discretionary function exception of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA or Act), 28 U. S. C. § 2680(a), bars a suit based on the Government’s licensing of an oral polio vaccine and on its subsequent approval of the release of a specific lot of that vaccine to the public. I On May 10, 1979, Kevan Berkovitz, then a 2-month-old infant, ingested a dose of Orimune, an oral polio vaccine manufactured by Lederle Laboratories. Within one month, he contracted a severe case of polio. The disease left Berkovitz almost completely paralyzed and unable to breathe without the assistance of a respirator. The Communicable Disease Center, an agency of the Federal Government, determined that Berkovitz had contracted polio from the vaccine. Berkovitz, joined by his parents as guardians, subsequently filed suit against the United States in Federal District Court. The complaint alleged that the United States was liable for his injuries under the FTCA, 28 U. S. C. §§ 1346(b), 2674, because the Division of Biologic Standards (DBS), then a part of the National Institutes of Health, had acted wrongfully in licensing Lederle Laboratories to produce Orimune and because the Bureau of Biologies of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had acted wrongfully in approving release to the public of the particular lot of…
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