Should the government warn you not to dangle your
feet in the open ocean if you're in a national park or
national monument? The family of 12-year old Sergio
Perez thought so.
In 2004, Perez was bitten on the foot by a barracuda
while sitting on the beach of the Buck Island Reef National
Monument in St. Croix, his feet dangling in the water. His
third and fourth toes were nearly severed, requiring surgery
and months of post-op care. His family brought suit in federal
court, seeking monetary damages.
Suing a U.S. government agency means you must first file
a claim with the government, and if the government rejects
or fails to respond to your claim, then you may file suit, in
most cases under the Federal Tort Claims Act, meaning you
litigate in federal court.
Perez's lawyers claimed the park personnel were negligent
in not warning him that barracudas might attack those
sitting on shore, and in not staffing the area with a park
ranger to give those warnings and render emergency aid if
an attack occurred. Yet defense evidence showed no similar
attack had ever occurred in the park area. The only prior
incident even remotely similar had occurred years earlier
when a boat captain's foot was bitten after he threw the
remains of a tuna can into the water and then dangled his
feet into the gurry-laden water.
The federal District Court judge rejected Perez's claim
that government employees in fact knew that barracuda
attacks posed a substantial threat to bathers, because the
evidence before the judge showed no prior similar incidents.
This was a key decision, because if the employees knew of a
substantial danger, then they were required to warn of it.
Barracuda, of course, are in the ocean nearly everywhere.
It seems quite a stretch to us to sue the U.S. government
because they nipped someone's toes.