N/A: Sovereign Immunity

[nddons]

Legal Beagles, I have a question for you.

I attended a legal update for contractors this week, and sovereign immunity was discussed. The idea was that if private contractors followed the directions of the governmental entity that employed them on a public project, and the poop hits the fan, the contractor could be entitled to the same sovereign immunity as the government, precluding all third party claims regardless of fault or causation.

One example given (don't know if it was a Wisconsin case or not) involved sewer leak tests, where smoke was injected into the sewer system to detect leaks. In this case, a house had a dry trap in the basement, and the smoke came into the house and killed an elderly bed ridden woman. In his case, her heirs had no recourse to the contractor or the government.

I'm no bleeding heart kind of guy, but that seems kind of harsh. Would there be any recourse to anyone in this case?

 

[Sac Arrow]

Legal Beagles, I have a question for you.

I attended a legal update for contractors this week, and sovereign immunity was discussed. The idea was that if private contractors followed the directions of the governmental entity that employed them on a public project, and the poop hits the fan, the contractor could be entitled to the same sovereign immunity as the government, precluding all third party claims regardless of fault or causation.

One example given (don't know if it was a Wisconsin case or not) involved sewer leak tests, where smoke was injected into the sewer system to detect leaks. In this case, a house had a dry trap in the basement, and the smoke came into the house and killed an elderly bed ridden woman. In his case, her heirs had no recourse to the contractor or the government.

I'm no bleeding heart kind of guy, but that seems kind of harsh. Would there be any recourse to anyone in this case?

I believe that protection is from prosecution in Federal court, not State court. That said, most public works contract language is very specific on contractor liability, and liability insurance requirements. I have not seen similar cases where the contractor, or the governmental agency in charge, had not been held liable.

There is though the "doctrine of reasonable care" where, if you perform your work to acceptable industry standards, and it results in an abnormal, unexpected event that causes damage you are shielded from liability in most States. I wonder if that wasn't the case.

 

[Henning]

Yack, can you imagine what that house smelled like with a dry trap?

 

[nddons]

Yack, can you imagine what that house smelled like with a dry trap?

No ****.

 

[PPC1052]

Yes, there is a government contractor defense that applies to state products liability claims if the contractor follows specific directives. See, Boyle v. United Technologies Corporation, 487 U.S. 500 (1988).

Yes, this preempts state law claims. The circuits are split whether this doctrine applies outside of military procurment contracts.

Also, in some states, if a contractor is fullfilling the role of a governmental entity, that contractor might be protected by pre-emption. That is going to depend on the particular state law.

I don't know how that would apply in the context of contractor fulfilling a role of the federal government and whether there might be protection under any federal tort claim protections.

 

[Skylane81E]

No ****.

Yes ****

 

[PilotAlan]

That is going to depend on the particular state law.

That's the most important phrase in this thread.
It depends on state law, it depends on the nature of the work being performed, the verbiage of the contract, and the direction given by the governmental entity.

There is no single, simple answer.

 

[PPC1052]

Also, in some states, if a contractor is fullfilling the role of a governmental entity, that contractor might be protected by pre-emption tort immunity. That is going to depend on the particular state law.

ack!! Where is my brain today? Fixed it.