Burt v. United States

HARKINS, Commissioner:

Concurring in the result.

I concur in the payments recommended by the review panel. Two parts of the opinion, however, require a change in emphasis and more precise delineation. The degree to which the Marines share responsibility for claimants’ injuries needs to be clarified. Whether the Government’s obligation to claimants is based on a legal or equitable claim or is in the nature of a gratuity needs to be more fully defined.

In my view, initiation of the firing that resulted in claimants’ injuries arose in a factual complex in which neither the Marines nor the claimants…