Galanti v. United States
Eleventh Circuit
709 F.2d 706 (1983)
FBI agent Paul King was protecting government witness Roger Underhill, who faced a real threat from fugitive felon Michael Thevis, by placing Underhill in witness protection; against King's advice, Underhill insisted on personally handling the sale of his own property, and told King in advance he'd be showing the secluded property to a potential buyer, Isaac Galanti, the next day. King never warned Galanti of the danger or surveilled the meeting, and Thevis had Underhill and Galanti shot and killed at the property. Galanti's widow, Vivian Galanti (plaintiff), sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, arguing King negligently failed to warn her husband of a foreseeable danger; the district court dismissed for failure to state a claim under Georgia's general rule against a duty to warn of foreseeable harm, and Vivian appealed.
Whether a government agent has a duty to warn a third party of a foreseeable danger arising from a protected witness's own risky conduct, where the agent did not create the danger, control its source, or voluntarily assume a duty to protect the third party.