Snow-Erlin

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

BARBARA SNOW-ERLIN, as  representative of the Estate of No. 05-16790 Darrow K. Erlin, Plaintiff-Appellant,  D.C. No.

CV-99-04050-VRW

v.

OPINION

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Defendant-Appellee.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Vaughn R. Walker, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted October 16, 2006—San Francisco, California

Filed November 14, 2006

Before: Susan P. Graber, M. Margaret McKeown, and Richard C. Tallman, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Graber

18539 SNOW-ERLIN v. UNITED STATES 18541

COUNSEL

Carter C. White, Supervising Attorney, and Sean Strauss, Cer- tified Law Student, King Hall Civil Rights Clinic, U.C. Davis School of Law, Davis, California, for the plaintiff-appellant.

Claire T. Cormier, Assistant United States Attorney, San Jose, California, for the defendant-appellee.

OPINION

GRABER, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Barbara Snow-Erlin sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) for damages resulting from an allegedly negligent miscalculation of her late hus- band’s…