FEDERAL TORT CLAIMS ACT-MEDICAL MALPRACTICE-INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS

Mummert v. United States, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 190216, 2023 WL 6990480 (M.D. Pa. October 23, 2023) (Rambo, J.) Under Federal Tort Claims Act, a person must be employed by the federal government to be sued. Independent contractors cannot be sued. There is no such thing as a direct negligence against the government for breach of a non-delegable duty notwithstanding the employment status of physicians. Allowing these theories of liability would frustrate the purpose of the independent contractor exception and represent a dramatic expansion of FTCA liability.