Donna Young v. United States

Plaintiffs Donna and Gerald Young and their minor daughter J.Y. appeal the district court’s order dismissing their complaint against the United States for negligently failing to warn visitors at Mount Rainier National Park of a hazard that the National Park Service both knew of and created. Donna sustained severe injuries when she fell into a twelve-foot-deep hole that had formed underneath the snow in an area near the Park’s main visitor center. The Youngs sued the United States for damages relating to Donna’s injuries, but the district court dismissed their complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, finding the action barred by the discretionary function exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act. See 28 U.S.C. § 2680 (a). On appeal, the United States maintains that the Park Service’s decision not to warn of the hazard was policy-driven — that is, guided by policies relating to access, historic and natural resource preservation, and conservation — and is therefore protected under the discretionary function exception. We conclude that the Park Service’s decision not to warn of the known hazard was not susceptible to those policy considerations and therefore is not…