Donald J. Peterson and Louise J. Peterson v. United States

Appellants seek a judgment against the United States under the provisions of the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346 (b) and 28 U.S.C. § 2671 et seq., to recover money damages for injury and loss of property allegedly caused by negligence when, without warning of any kind to appellants, a group of engineers attached to the Ladd Air Force Base at Fairbanks, Alaska, caused to be dynamited an ice jam which had accumulated from natural causes in a bend of the Chena River, thereby disrupting the normal and natural breakup of ice in said river and causing to be discharged downstream a large accumulation of ice and an immense volume of water, the proximate result of which was to damage and destroy appellants’ property consisting of vessels and miscellaneous equipment located on the Chena River approximately five miles downstream from the ice jam. The ice jam formed in a bend of the river within the boundaries of Ladd Air Force Base, now known as Fort Wainwright. The dynamiting operations were carried out by United States Air Force personnel, pursuant to instructions of the Engineering Officers of the Base.

The facts are not in dispute and a detailed account of them may be found in…