Otteson v. United States
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
622 F.2d 516 (1980)
Stacey Otteson died when the jeep she was riding in slid on an icy national forest road built and maintained by the federal government (defendant) primarily to facilitate timber harvesting; her estate (plaintiff) sued under the FTCA, alleging negligent failure to maintain the road, warn of hazards, or close it when unsafe. The government asserted immunity, arguing road maintenance was a discretionary function and that Colorado's sightseer statute — limiting private rural landowners who allow public recreational access to liability only for willful or malicious failures to warn of known dangers — applied to it; the trial court agreed the statute applied and found no FTCA waiver of immunity, and Otteson's estate appealed, arguing the government should instead be treated like a political subdivision with a duty to maintain public roads for the traveling public.
Whether the federal government, in maintaining roads within a national forest built primarily for timber harvesting, is subject to the same limited-liability protections as a private rural landowner under a state sightseer statute, rather than the higher duty owed by political subdivisions maintaining public roads.