Nora Faye Johnson v. United States

GEE, Circuit Judge:

In this action under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b), we are called upon to determine the appropriate doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel that are to be applied under this statute. The facts of the case set out a particularly compelling drama. In May 1970, Sergeant Jimmy Ray Johnson moved with his wife, Nora'Faye Johnson, appellant in the instant case, and their two young children to the vicinity of Fort Stewart, Georgia, where Sergeant Johnson had been posted. During that summer Sergeant Johnson approached an army chaplain about his marital…