Currie v. United States

HAYNSWORTH, Senior Circuit Judge:

The difficult question for decision is whether the North Carolina Supreme Court would impose upon a psychotherapist an affirmative duty to seek the involuntary commitment of a patient the therapist believed to be dangerous to others when the therapist had given warnings to those believed to be within the zone of danger. In this suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act (because the therapists are federal employees), the district court held that the North Carolina Supreme Court would impose such a duty, but that the duty would not be violated by a simple want of…