Navarrette

I. Background

Navarette was injured in April 1997 at the Liberty Glen Campground, which the Army Corps owns and operates. On the night of his accident, Navarette was camping with his brother and a group of friends at a site numbered “C-88.” Navarette and a friend, Kelly Kaslar, walked down an unmarked path from site C-88 in the direction of flashlights NAVARETTE v. UNITED STATES 10903 visible at another campsite. The path led directly to the edge of a cliff. Navarette and Kaslar fell off the cliff and fell approximately 30 feet to the rocks below. Navarette suffered a brain injury that, according to physicians’ reports, will per- manently affect his functioning.

The path leading to the cliff was not part of the camp- ground plan, but rather a “use path” that had been worn down by animals and campers. By 1995 at the latest, well before Navarette’s accident, rangers at Liberty Glen had noticed the path leading from C-88 to the cliff, but the Army Corps had done nothing to alert campers using the path to the dangerous drop off. Indeed, during their regular safety meetings camp- ground administrators and staff never discussed whether to take safety precautions related…