Louisiana v. Block

This case arises out of the unrecovered theft of some $138,832 worth of food stamps from the New Orleans, Louisiana, issuing office, and the basic question that we are presented with is whether the loss should be borne by the United States, which had issued the stamps, or by the State of Louisiana, which had been given the immediate responsibility for their safekeeping and distribution. We are required to decide the question under the Food Stamp Act of 1964, as it stood before it was rewritten and *431reorganized in 1977.1 The district court ruled that Louisiana should bear the loss and, for the…