GOVERNMENT LIABILITY
For human beings to live peacefully without, they need laws that will regulate and govern them. Nonetheless, coming up with laws can be a cumbersome process and will need a lot of resources to be invested for them to be passed. Most importantly the laws that are passed must be accepted by every individual that lives in the country in question. It was due to this that when the U.S. was free from the Britons, they decided to continue using the Common Law that they used because it was much easy to transition into a new nation. This approach proved to be a success because the U.S. has successfully used this law to become the great nation that it is. Even though this law was adopted form their colonizers, the approach that the U.S. uses to enforce the law can be said to be different because Britons still use the monarchy kind of rule. This did not allow citizens to sue their government because of sovereign immunity.
After independence, the sovereign immunity was still in place in the U.S. government up until the end of World War II. Congress then passed the Federal Tort Claim Act (FTCA) in the year. 1946. This had taken 170 years after the U.S. had been declared an independent country. As such, the U.S. citizens were given the ability to sue their government. An American citizen would sue the government in various scenarios while at the workplace. For instance, one would sue if they are injured or lose property brought about by negligence or wrongful act. Even though employees were given a right to sue, there were various exceptions like geographical limitations, combatant activities, activities incidents to military service and so forth.
The air traffic control (ATC) is an important aspect of the aviation field. Without them, it would be very difficult to control air traffic leading to a lot of catastrophic accidents that would cost the federal government a lot of money. There has been various argument brought forth by government attorneys. They argued that the federal government should not be held liable in case of negligence. This was however denied because by courts because they believed that before a controller at the ATC makes a mistake, the Congress would first have to sit down and come up with policies and plans on how to control the air traffic. As such, a controller at the ATC be will be negligent when the policies and planners are not wise. While addressing a case where there is negligence, during investigations, to answer the question if a controller effectively carried out their duty, the Air Traffic Controller’s Handbook is usually used as a reference to arrive at concrete solutions.
Weather is also another important facet in the aviation industry because it plays a key role while operating an aircraft. To ensure that pilots get accurate data on how the weather conditions are prevailing in a certain area, at the ATC, the government has employed federal employees who monitor the weather advise all pilots, and dispatch current and forecast weather conditions and also advise pilots on the alternative routes they can use in case the weather deteriorates. As such when an accident related to weather condition occurs, the federal government is held liable because it is responsible for availing accurate and useful weather information to pilots. Some of the things that these federal workers must report on include; icing conditions, reporting an incorrect altimeter setting, deteriorating runway visibility and so forth. All these are the responsibility of federal employees and that is why the government is held liable in case of an accident.
Before any plane is allowed to fly within the airspace, there are various processes that it must be passed through to ensure its airworthiness. Otherwise, it may lead to catastrophic accidents leading to multiple lawsuits against the government costing them a lot of resources. Firstly, the design of a given plane must ensure that it conforms to the air certification standards that are contained in the FAR. And secondly, it is upon the manufacturer to satisfy the FAA the product’s production and method of inspection is a precise replica of the design which a Type Certification was issued. While approving all these, it should be done in a keen manner because any accident that results from this will lead to a lawsuit against the government. Additionally, the manufacturer of the plane will face negligence charges but the federal government will incur a much higher penalty.
Before an individual decides to seek judicial relief for a certain wrong, they must ensure that they exhaust any administrative remedies that are provided by the law. Without following the required procedure, the case will be dismissed by the court. Federal employees can be said to have an advantage because they cannot suffer a personal liability in case there is negligence and will be protected like the federal government. Moreover, when they are finned, it is the government that will chip in and pay all the costs. This is a unique advantage that such employees have in the U.S.