The Federal Tort Claims Act is the statute by which the United States authorizes tort suits to be brought against it. As a result of the common law doctrine of sovereign immunity, the United States cannot be sued without its consent. Congress alone has the power to waive or qualify that immunity.
“In 1946, by enacting the FTCA, Congress waived sovereign
immunity for some tort suits. With exceptions, it made the United States liable: for injury or loss of property, or personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the government while acting within the scope of his office or employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person would be liable to the claim act in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred.” (Henner, 1998)
“In passing the FTCA, Congress allowed the federal government to be sued. Congress also made specific exceptions to the act, and the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted one provision broadly, both actions resulting in the dismissal of many plaintiffs' lawsuits.” (Godwin, 1995)
In consenting to be sued, the federal government waived the sovereign immunity it had in the past. sovereign is exempt from suit, not because of any formal conception or obsolete theory, but on the logical and practical ground that there can be no legal right as against the authority that makes the law on which the right depends.
Nevertheless, during the nineteenth century, Congress consented to the federal government's being sued in several causes of action. Congress established the Court of Claims in 1855 to entertain contract actions against the United States. The passage of the Tucker Act in 1887 broadened that court's jurisdiction to include designated nontort actions, including eminent domain cases................
