Maas v. United States

94 F.3d 291 (7th Cir. 1996)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

SAC lost an H bomb from the crash of a B-52 in 1968. The crash was in Greenland, and the bomb's radioactive plutonium and tritium was scattered over the ice flows. Broken Arrow was called, and a cleanup operation commenced. The four plaintiffs, in this case, were among the 300 servicemen and Danish civilian workers who worked on the cleanup. Such cleanup missions are highly dangerous. The government continually tested the participants for exposure and even continued testing for three years after the clean-up. However, there was an issue that the severe weather conditions made the tests ineffective. It was a fact that by 1980 the government was aware of the risk of cancer from low-level radiation exposure and Ps claimed that the government did not warn them of this increased level of danger to their health. P was diagnosed with cancer in 1991, and another P was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma. Both assert they contracted cancer from the cleanup exposure. Their claims were dismissed under Feres immunity as these issues were matters of the performance of discretionary functions.