Downs v. United States

CELEBREZZE, Circuit Judge:

This appeal presents two basic questions concerning the United States’ liability for actions of FBI agents resulting in the death of innocent victims of a hijacking. These issues are the applicability of the “discretionary function” exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act1 and the existence of negligence under Florida law on the facts of this case.

This action arose out of the hijacking of a small passenger airplane in Nashville, Tennessee. Inside the aircraft were the hijacker, an associate, the hijacker’s estranged wife, a pilot, and a co-pilot. The hijacker…