Hencely v. Fluor Corp. · ¶90

The Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) does not help petitioner because that law simply does not speak to the question of preemption. The FTCA provides a limited waiver of the United States' sovereign immunity from suit but sets out certain exceptions to that waiver, and one of these exceptions covers claims “arising out of the combatant activities of the military or naval forces, or the Coast Guard, during time of war.” Ibid. This exception protects the Federal Government from liability for petitioner's injuries, but its terms do not address the question whether state tort law applies to a federal contractor carrying out federal wartime policies on a military base in theater. Indeed, that provision does not even give rise to an inference of non-preemption. Since the FTCA concerns the Government's sovereign immunity, and since government contractors enjoy no such immunity, that Act would be…

preliminary print (page proof)
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.