Aetna Insurance Company v. United States

This is an action by insurance companies against the United States Government to recover more than $7,000,000 in claims paid to insureds as a result of the 1976 collapse of the Teton Dam. The sole issue presented in this interlocutory appeal is whether the suit is barred by the provisions of 33 U.S.C. § 702c, which immunizes the United States from liability for flood damage related to flood control projects. The district court certified this appeal from its order denying the Government’s motion to dismiss. We accepted the appeal and now hold that the district court’s order must be reversed because the United States is immune.

Congress authorized the construction of the Teton Dam in 1964 in the wake of serious flooding which occurred in 1962. The dam was part of the Bureau of Recia mation’s Teton Basin Project authorized by Pub.L. No. 88-583, 78 Stat. 925 (1964), 43 U.S.C. §§ 616nn-616rr. The enabling legislation’s preamble stated multiple purposes for the project which did not expressly include flood control. However, the legislative history of the Act makes it clear that the project was at least in part intended to prevent the type of floods which had occurred in 1962. The…