Jack Leaf and Marvin Gunnufson v. United States of America, and Morris Bean

GOODWIN, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs, owners of an aircraft damaged in Mexico, appeal from a summary judgment in favor of defendant United States. We reverse and remand.

Leaf and Gunnufson brought an action against Bean for negligence, and against the United States under 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b), 1 on theories of negligence and respondeat superior. They charge that the government was negligent because the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) failed to supervise and control Bean, its agent, who leased and used the plaintiff’s airplane. Unresolved fact questions on the merits had to do with the proximate cause…