Governmental Liability and Immunity for Geotechnical Infrastructure Failure Associated with Extreme Events

The risk of personal injury due to extreme events cannot be completely eliminated by the government agencies responsible for maintenance of public property, including geotechnical infrastructure. Nevertheless, when extreme events occur, those who incur personal injury as a result of geosystem failure will often seek to hold those government agencies responsible. This paper examines the legal grounds upon which government agencies may be held liable, and the immunity theories under which government agencies may avoid liability for personal injury due to geosystem failure during extreme events. As a case study, the paper examines litigation involving the 2014 Oso landslide in the State of Washington, which killed forty-three people and injured many others, resulting in potential liability for federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies. Although the federal, tribal, and local government agencies avoided liability on a variety of immunity theories, the state government ultimately consented to a judgment of $50 million to resolve all personal injury claims against state agencies.