9th Circuit rejects widow's suit over fatal mountain goat attack in national park
Sovereign immunity protects the U.S. government from being held liable for a mountain goat’s fatal attack on an Olympic National Park visitor, a divided federal appeals court has ruled.
The National Park Service had discretion under the Federal Tort Claims Act to decide how the 370-pound wild animal that was known to be aggressive should be handled, the majority held in its Monday decision (PDF).
The Associated Press and Courthouse News have stories.
A dissenting judge on the appellate panel said the Park Service’s lack of response to the threat posed by the mountain goat, known as Klahhane Billy, was clearly negligent. Circuit Judge Andrew Kleinfeld called the government’s claimed policy of nonlethal response a “rationalization for their inaction” adopted after hiker Robert Boardman was gored in the leg and bled to death.
His widow, Susan Chadd, is the plaintiff in the Western District of Washington case.
“Letting an identified aggressive 370-pound goat threaten park visitors and rangers for years until it killed one amounted to a failure to implement the formally established park policy for managing dangerous animals,” Kleinfeld said in his dissent. “Written park policy provided a series of steps for dealing with animals dangerous to park visitors, from frightening the animal away to removing or killing it.”
The mountain goat was killed after its fatal attack on Boardman.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Federal Judge Nixes Most of Widow’s Suit re Hiker Killed By Mountain Goat in National Park”
