Dalehite et al. v. United States (346 U.S. 15)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 8, 1953 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 346 U.S. 15 · 73 S. Ct. 956
- Docket
- No. 308
- Argued
- April 6, 1953
- Decided
- June 8, 1953
- Term
- October Term 1952
- Vote
- 4–3
- Majority author
- Justice Reed
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Reed (wrote), Justice Burton, Justice Minton
- Dissenting
- Justice Black, Justice Frankfurter, Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Reed delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioners seek damages from the United States for the death of Henry G. Dalehite in explosions of fertilizer with an ammonium nitrate base, at Texas City, Texas, on April 16 and 17,1947. This is a test case, representing some 300 separate personal and property claims in the aggregate amount of two hundred million dollars. Consolidated trial was had in the District Court for the Southern District of Texas on the facts and the crucial question of federal liability generally. This was done under an arrangement that the result would be accepted as to those matters in the other suits. Judgment was rendered following separate proof of damages for these individual plaintiffs in the sum of $75,000. Damages in the other claims remain to be determined. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit unanimously reversed, however, In re Texas City Disaster Litigation, 197 F. 2d 771, and we granted certiorari, 344 U. S. 873, because the case presented an important problem of federal statutory interpretation. The suits were filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U. S. C. §§ 1346, 2671-2678, 2680. That Act waived sovereign immunity from suit for certain specified torts of federal employees. It did not assure injured persons damages for all injuries caused by such employees. The Act provides that the federal district courts, “[s]ubject…
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