Earl Watkins, Herbert Lester Davis and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., Etc. v. United States

GOLDBERG, Circuit Judge:

This is an action under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

Airman James Richardson, though not a party to the suit, is the central character in this unhappy story. While on leave from his duty station in Turkey, Richardson, in the words of the trial judge, went “berserk.” He was admitted to the Redstone Arsenal Psychiatric Clinic in Alabama for several days of treatment and observation. The psychiatrists diagnosed Richardson’s disorder as “an acute and chronic situational reaction manifested by hysteria, anxiety, and depression.”

About a month after Richardson’s release from…