Gonzalez Ex Rel. A.F. v. United States

Gina Gonzalez, the plaintiff in this action, alleges that a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent knew of serious threats to her family.1 The information about the threats was lost within the agency and so was not disclosed to local law enforcement, as the FBI’s policy requires. Because no action was taken to follow up on the threat, Gonzalez’s husband and nine-year-old daughter were killed and she was injured.

The majority holds that, under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. § 2671 et seq., the federal government cannot be held to answer in tort for this entirely avoidable…