Donald M. Posegate, and Ida J. Posegate, Husband and Wife v. United States

Donald M. Posegate and Ida J. Pose-gate, his wife, brought an action in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona against the United States under the provisions of the Federal Tort Claims Act. The complaint alleged that on February 26, 1958, as a result of the negligence of the United States Donald M. Posegate was struck by a nine-ton gun or field piece, crushed and pinned to the ground beneath said gun. He received “a fractured pelvis, a ruptured bladder and urethra, the severance of certain nerves in the lower intestinal tract and other serious and permanent bodily injuries, which injuries have rendered him permanently impotent.”

Donald Posegate in Count One of the complaint sought damages in the sum of $125,000 for his alleged impotence, and his wife Ida sought damages in Count Two in the sum of $25,000 for loss of “the comfort, society and consortium of her husband.” Subsequent to the filing of the complaint the United States made a request for admissions, and from the reply made by appellants it appears that on February 26, 1958, at the time of the injury, Donald Posegate was an employee of the United States; that the injury occurred upon a government…