Loren Christian Brandes, Plaintiff/appellant/cross-Appellee v. United States of America, Defendants/appellees/cross-Appellants

Loren Brandes appeals from the district court’s determination that Brandes was the sole cause of the automobile accident in question and from the denial of his motion for a new trial. Included in this appeal is a cross-appeal from the United States regarding the district court’s decision that Rue Dann, the driver of the government vehicle, was a federal employee when the accident occurred. Because we find that Dann was not a federal employee, the district court lacked jurisdiction over the subject matter of the case and its decisions are therefore vacated.

I. FACTS

This suit arose from a traffic accident near Sausalito, California, involving Loren Brandes and Rue Dann. At the time of the accident, Dann was operating a United States Government vehicle. Dann’s fiance, Dr. John Ziegler, had accepted a job with the Veterans’ Administration (VA) in San Francisco and Ziegler and Dann had come to California to search for a house. To facilitate their househunting, they were issued a United States Government vehicle.

The accident occurred on June 7, 1981, while Dann was househunting. The vehicles collided while traveling in the northbound lane of U.S. 101. As a result of the accident,…