## Facts

- After World War II, the United States implemented an export program to increase food supply in occupied areas by producing and shipping fertilizer with an ammonium nitrate base.
- The fertilizer was manufactured by private companies at government-activated plants pursuant to government contracts, specifications, and federal control over key aspects of production and shipment.
- In April 1947, a fire occurred aboard the *Grandcamp* while it was loading the fertilizer at Texas City, Texas.
- The fire led to massive explosions that caused extensive deaths, injuries, and property damage.
- Representative plaintiffs brought consolidated personal-injury, wrongful-death, and property-damage claims against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA).
- The district court found the United States negligent in adopting and administering the program, including manufacturing and packaging control, labeling and warnings, and failure to police loading and related safety measures; it entered a damages judgment for certain plaintiffs.
- The Fifth Circuit reversed, concluding the FTCA did not permit recovery on the facts found.

## Issues

1. Whether the FTCA’s discretionary-function exception, 28 U.S.C. § 2680(a), barred claims based on federal decisions and omissions connected to the fertilizer export program.
2. Whether the alleged negligence involved nonactionable planning-level discretion (plans, specifications, regulatory choices) or actionable operational negligence.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit and held the district court lacked jurisdiction under the FTCA because the claims fell within § 2680(a).
- The Court concluded that the challenged acts—program adoption, specifications, labeling and shipping choices, and regulatory and oversight decisions—were discretionary decisions protected by the exception, even if negligent.
- The Court also held claims based on alleged firefighting failures were outside the FTCA’s coverage under the traditional rule that negligence by public firemen does not create private actionable rights.

## Legal Principles

- The FTCA is a limited waiver of sovereign immunity and does not provide compensation for all injuries connected to government activity.
- Under 28 U.S.C. § 2680(a), the United States is not liable for claims “based upon” the exercise or failure to exercise a discretionary function or duty, “whether or not the discretion involved be abused.”
- The discretionary-function exception extends beyond initiating a governmental program and includes executive and administrative determinations in establishing plans, specifications, and schedules of operations.
- Acts of subordinates carried out in accordance with official directions implementing such discretionary determinations are not actionable under the FTCA.
- Regulatory judgments about the degree and manner of oversight (including decisions about safety regulation of storage/loading) fall within the discretionary-function exception.

## Conclusion

The Court held that the asserted negligence claims arising from the Texas City explosions challenged discretionary governmental judgments in planning and administering a federal fertilizer export program and were therefore barred by the FTCA’s discretionary-function exception.


Dalehite v. United States, 346 U.S. 15 (1953)