Johnson v. United States

A mountain climber died of hypothermia in Grand Teton National Park after straying from a trail and falling, sustaining a head injury; his body was found by helicopter only the morning after his climbing party requested a ranger's assistance. His survivors (plaintiffs) sued the government (defendant), alleging the Park Service was negligent both for failing to regulate mountain climbing and for delaying the search-and-rescue response, arguing the discretionary-function exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act shouldn't apply because these decisions didn't implicate genuine social, economic, or political considerations. The park superintendent justified the lack of climbing regulation on policy grounds — the inherent danger of climbing, resource conservation, the impracticality of testing climber competency, and visitors' preference for an unregulated climbing experience — and the district court granted the government summary judgment.