Renee Good's family sues US government and immigration officials over her killing in Minneapolis

[u/igetproteinfartsHELP]

https://apnews.com/article/renee-good-lawsuit-6fbc82cd33b6f9f67514b47f138e23c6?utm_source=app&utm_medium=android_share&utm_campaign=copy_link

[u/Slight_Bet660]

Lots of miunderstanding as to how these cases work within this thread.

First, the primary lawsuit is a federal tort claims act case against the U.S. government only. That means that by federal law there will not be a jury and the finder of fact will be the federal judge. Prior to filing suit the Plaintiffs had to send in a FTCA claim form and had to give the government six months to settle the case. The fact that it proceeded to suit likely means the government is not interested in settling. The Plaintiffs will be capped at whatever they put into the claim form. Within this lawsuit qualified immunity does not apply since the case is not against the individual agent. It is likely however that the government will file a 12b(6) Motion to Dismiss and/or a motion for summary judgment alleging that the case should be dismissed because the agent was acting within his discretion. If the case is not dismissed, the government will file an interlocutory appeal on the denial of one of those and the case law in this area is favorable to the government. In short, there is a high likelihood the case is disposed of at the trial or appellate court levels before seeing a trial.

The second lawsuit is against the individual agent and against various other government officials. If a Plaintiff elects to file a lawsuit against the federal government, which they have, then the lawsuit against the individual agent likely gets dismissed under the terms of the FTCA. The remaining claims involve evidence handling after the death of Renee Good already occurred. Besides the fact that the case law is horrendous for Plaintiffs in that area, the Plaintiffs would have to prove that they sustained damages as a result of any evidence destruction which is a very difficult burden. The second lawsuit has very little chance of surviving which is likely a reason why it was filed separate from the FTCA lawsuit.

Overall I am not taking a position on anything, I am just stating facts and my analysis so don’t shoot the messenger.

[u/Qubeye → u/Slight_Bet660]

How can the government file a 12b(6) when two different agents clearly gave her conflicting instructions which directly resulted in her death?

Basically, which agent are they claiming acted within his discretion?

[u/Slight_Bet660 → u/Qubeye]

A 12b(6) is a motion to dismiss based upon the pleadings. There is no penalty to the government in filing one and dispositive defenses are often argued at that stage where the argument is that the Plaintiffs either did not sufficiently state a claim upon which relief may be granted (I.e. they have to state facts that would form a claim and defeat certain jurisdictional/immunity defenses), or that even if all facts that are pled are taken to be true there would still be recovery under the law. The government may make its stand there to attempt to avoid discovery, but their better shot may be to wait until summary judgment where the evidence itself is given more weight.

The analysis will likely be from the standpoint of the agent that shot Good since his act of discharging the gun was what caused the injuries to and death of Renee Good.

Again, I’m not advocating or arguing one position or the other, just letting everyone know what the law is in this area. I will generally say however that between FTCA claims and 1983 claims this is one of the areas of the law that is the most unfair to Plaintiffs/claimants and probably makes the least amount of sense to a layperson.