On November 12, 2014, CCL filed an amicus curiae brief for AAJ in a pair of Federal Tort Claims Act cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. AAJ’s brief, prepared by CCL Senior Counsel Jeffrey R. White, urges the Court to hold that federal courts may suspend the statutory time limits where equity requires.

The FTCA waives sovereign immunity for harm caused by the negligence of federal employees. However, the claimant must file an administrative claim with the agency involved within two years after the cause of action has accrued. Additionally, the claimant must file suit within 6 months after the agency’s denial. Claims that do not comply with these deadlines “shall be forever barred.”

In United States v. Wong, No. 13-1074, plaintiff sought damages arising out her detention by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. While awaiting denial of her administrative claim by the INS, plaintiff filed a motion for leave to amend her existing complaint to add an FTCA claim. However, the district court did not grant her motion until after the six-month deadline had passed.

In United States v. June, No. 13-1075, plaintiff’s decedent was killed in an auto accident in 2005 when a driver lost control of her vehicle on an interstate and crossed through the cable median barrier into oncoming traffic. Plaintiff sued the United States in 2009, after discovering that the Federal Highway Administration had falsely reported that the cable median barrier had passed mandatory federal crashworthiness tests.

In both cases, the Ninth Circuit held that the FTCA time limits were subject to equitable tolling in appropriate cases where plaintiff was diligent in pursuing her claim but was prevented from complying with the limitations by circumstances beyond her control, particularly where the government played a role in creating those circumstances.

AAJ argued to the Supreme Court that the Ninth Circuit’s holding comports with the text of the FTCA, which provides that the federal government “shall be liable in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances.” Courts have historically exercised their equitable power to toll statutes of limitations in appropriate cases. Equitable tolling also comports with Congress’s purpose of providing redress to those injured by federal government employees. In addition, equitable tolling permits courts in cases like Wong and June to avoid depriving of injured claimants of their statutory causes of action in violation of due process and right of access to the courts.