Kobe Bryant’s widow Vanessa sued the helicopter flight operator claiming they failed to ensure the pilot and the craft were flight-ready. The operator argues two flight controllers share the blame.
Former Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna watch the U.S. national championships swimming meet in Irvine, Calif., in 2018. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, file)
LOS ANGELES (CN) The federal government must face claims it negligently trained two Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers who supported the helicopter pilot in the moments before a crash that killed basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other passengers last year, a judge ruled Monday.
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The court missed the opportunity to overturn one of its most infamous, indefensible doctrines. Created more than 70 years ago, the Feres Doctrine has victimized hundreds of thousands of service members and their families. The court’s failure should now put pressure on Congress to finally act to end the tragic legacy of the
Feres decision.
I have been a vocal critic of
Feres for decades and wrote a three-part study of the military legal system 20 years ago that detailed how this doctrine began in 1950 with a clearly erroneous reading of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The doctrine is named after Army Lt. Rudolph Feres, who died in a fire allegedly caused by an unsafe heating system in his New York barracks. It was one of three cases combined for review by the court, including a soldier who sued after an Army doctor left a 30-by-18-inch towel (marked as “Medical Department U.S. Army” property) inside him.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a woman who says she was raped as a West Point cadet, with Justice Clarence Thomas alone arguing that the court should have heard her case.
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US Can t Duck Cross-Claims In Kobe Bryant Death Suit
Law360 (May 3, 2021, 5:39 PM EDT) A California federal judge on Monday refused to let the U.S. government out of a suit over the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, saying that the federal court retains jurisdiction over a Federal Tort Claims Act case even if the state court that it was removed from wouldn t have.
U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin denied most of the government s motion to dismiss cross-claims brought against it by Island Express Helicopters Inc., which had sought indemnification and blamed two air traffic controllers for the crash.