State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. v. United States

Terry Barton was an employee of the United States Forest Service. Barton was on patrol in the Pike National Forest when she burned a letter. Barton burned the letter in a fire ring and left the area after she believed the letter had burned out. Shortly after, Barton returned to the area and observed a wildfire. Barton reported the fire via her radio and attempted to put out the fire. Notably, the forest service had no mandatory directives regarding how exactly an employee was supposed to combat specific forest fires. Unfortunately, Barton’s attempts to suppress the fire were unsuccessful, and 138,000 acres of land were burned. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company (State Farm) (plaintiff) sued the United States (defendant) under the Federal Tort Claims Act (the act) to recover money that State Farm had paid out in insurance claims. State Farm alleged that the United States was liable under the act because Barton, a federal employee, had negligently failed to prevent the fire from damaging the property of State Farm’s insureds. The United States argued that Barton was acting outside the scope of her employment when she started the fire. The United States also argued that even if Barton had been acting in the scope of her employment and negligently breached a duty owed to State Farm’s insureds, the discretionary-function exception to the act applied because individual employee decisions regarding how to fight a wildfire were discretionary.