Smith v. United States

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's complaint for failure to state a claim. Plaintiff's claim arose out of an agreement she entered into with a non-party FBI confidential informant. Plaintiff filed suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. 1346(b)(1), alleging that the United States caused her losses under a lease arrangement with the informant through negligence, deliberate indifference, and conversion. The court held that none of plaintiff's claims stated a cause of action under Georgia law and agreed that the district court correctly dismissed all three counts of the second amendment. In this case, because plaintiff's negligence claim would not support a cause of action against a private person under Georgia law, it likewise does not support an FTCA claim against the United States; plaintiff alleged no authority supporting the existence of a Georgia cause of action for deliberate indifference; and, because plaintiff did not allege that the United States ever had actual possession of the vehicles, the district court correctly dismissed the conversion claim. View "Smith v. United States" on Justia Law