Will v. Hallock

Federal agents seized Susan Hallock's (plaintiff) computer equipment under a warrant, ruining her drives and destroying her business data. She sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), and separately sued the individual federal agents (defendants). The district court dismissed her FTCA suit under an exception to the waiver of sovereign immunity. The agents then moved to dismiss the suit against them, invoking the FTCA's judgment bar, but the district court refused because the FTCA dismissal was on procedural grounds. The agents appealed, and the court of appeals heard it under the collateral-order doctrine. The Supreme Court granted certiorari on appellate jurisdiction.

Whether a district court's refusal to apply the Federal Tort Claims Act's judgment bar is immediately appealable under the collateral-order doctrine.