Smith v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

The majority follows the D.C. Circuit by holding that the immunity for “governmental functions” conferred by section 80 of the METRO Compact is at least as broad as that conferred by the discretionary function exception, 28 U.S.C. § 2680(a), to the Federal Tort Claims Act. As the D.C. Circuit explained in Burkhart v. WMATA, 112 F.3d 1207, 1216-17 (D.C.Cir.1997), this means that the METRO is immune from liability for any acts and omissions that are “susceptible to policy analysis” under the standard established by the Supreme Court in United States v. Gaubert, 499 U.S. 315, 325, 111 S.Ct.…