Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/508/200/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 16:44:14+00:00

Document:
Petitioner Keene Corporation has been sued by thousands of plaintiffs alleging injury from exposure to asbestos fibers and dust released from Keene products. Claiming that it was following Government specifications in including asbestos within products supplied to Government projects, and that it actually bought asbestos fiber from the Government, Keene filed two complaints against the United States in the Court of Federal Claims to recoup some of the money it was paying to litigate and settle the asbestos suits. At the time it filed each of the complaints, Keene had a similar claim pending in another court; the other actions were dismissed before the Court of Federal Claims ordered the dismissals at issue here. The Court of Federal Claims dismissed both cases on the authority of 28 U. S. C. § 1500, which prohibits it from exercising jurisdiction over a claim "for or in respect to which" the plaintiff "has [a suit or process] pending" in any other court, finding that Keene had the same claims pending in other courts when it filed the cases. The Court of Appeals affirmed.
Held: Section 1500 precludes Court of Federal Claims jurisdiction over Keene's actions. Pp. 205-218.
(a) In applying the jurisdictional bar here by looking to the facts existing when Keene filed each of its complaints, the Court of Federal Claims followed the longstanding principle that a court's jurisdiction depends upon the state of things at the time the action is brought. Mollan v. Torrance, 9 Wheat. 537, 539. Keene gives no convincing reason for dispensing with this rule in favor of one that would look to the facts at the time of the Court of Federal Claims' ruling on a motion to dismiss. Although some of the provisions surrounding § 1500 use the phrase "jurisdiction to render judgment," § 1500 speaks of "jurisdiction," without more; this fact only underscores the Court's duty to refrain from reading into the statute a phrase that Congress has left out. Keene's appeal to statutory history is no more availing, since Congress expressed no clear intent that a shift in the provision's language from "file or prosecute" to "jurisdiction" indicated a change in the substantive law. Pp.205-209.
another court "for or in respect to" the claim raised in the Court of Federal Claims. That comparison turns on whether the plaintiff's other suit is based on substantially the same operative facts as the Court of Federal Claims action, at least if there is some overlap in the relief requested, see Ex parte Skinner & Eddy Corp., 265 U. S. 86; Corona Coal Co. v. United States, 263 U. S. 537, not on whether the actions are based on different legal theories, see British American Tobacco Co. v. United States, 89 Ct. Cl. 438 (per curiam). Since this interpretation of § 1500's immediate predecessor represented settled law when Congress reenacted the "for or in respect to" language in 1948, the presumption that Congress was aware of the earlier judicial interpretations and, in effect, adopted them is applied here. Thus, the Court rejects Keene's theory that § 1500 does not apply here because the other pending suits rested on legal theories that could not have been pleaded in the Court of Federal Claims. Pp. 210-214.
(c) There is no need to address the question whether the Court of Appeals's construction of § 1500 is "a new rule of law" that ought to be applied only prospectively under the test set out in Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U. S. 97, because Keene's claims were dismissed under wellsettled law. Finally, Keene's policy arguments should be addressed to Congress. Pp.215-218.
SOUTER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C. J., and WHITE, BLACKMUN, O'CONNOR, SCALIA, KENNEDY, and THOMAS, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 218.
Richard D. Taranto argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Joel 1. Klein, John H. Kazanjian, Irene C. Warshauer, Stuart E. Rickerson, and John G. O'Brien.
JUSTICE SOUTER delivered the opinion of the Court. Keene Corporation has been sued by thousands of plaintiffs alleging injury from exposure to asbestos fibers and dust released from products made by Keene and by a company it acquired. In trying to recoup some of the money it was paying to litigate and settle the cases, Keene filed two complaints against the United States in the Court of Federal Claims.1 When it filed each complaint, however, Keene had a similar claim pending against the Government in another court. We hold that 28 U. S. C. § 1500 consequently precludes Court of Federal Claims jurisdiction over Keene's actions and affirm the dismissal of its complaints.
of the United States by Herbert L. Fenster, Ray M. Aragon, and Robin S. Conrad; for the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma et al. by Richard Dauphinais, Yvonne T. Knight, Patrice Kunesh, and Scott B. McElroy; for Defenders of Property Rights by Nancie G. Marzulla; for Dico, Inc., by Charles F. Lettow; for the Pacific Legal Foundation et al. by Ronald A. Zumbrun, James S. Burling, and R. S. Radford; for Whitney Benefits, Inc., et al. by George W Miller, Walter A. Smith, Jr., and Jonathan L. Abram; and for the National Association of Home Builders by Albert J. Beveridge III and Virginia S. Albrecht.
Don S. Willner and Thomas M. Buchanan filed a brief for C. Robert Suess et al. as amici curiae.
1 Keene actually filed its complaints in the old Court of Claims. Soon thereafter, Congress transferred the trial functions of the Court of Claims to a newly created "United States Claims Court." Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982, § 133, 96 Stat. 39-41. The Claims Court has just been renamed the "United States Court of Federal Claims." See Court of Federal Claims Technical and Procedural Improvements Act of 1992, § 902, 106 Stat. 4516. To avoid confusion, we will refer to the trial court in this case by its latest name.
1970's, plaintiffs began suing Keene in tort, alleging injury or death from exposure to asbestos fibers. In a typical case filed against Keene and other defendants in the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Miller v. Johns-Manville Products Corp., No. 78-1283E, the plaintiff alleged, on behalf of the estate of one Dzon, that the decedent had died of lung cancer caused by asbestos fibers and dust inhaled during employment in 1943 and 1944. In June 1979, Keene filed a third-party complaint against the United States, alleging that any asbestos products to which Dzon was exposed had been supplied to the Government in accordance with specifications set out in Government contracts, and seeking indemnification or contribution from the Government for any damages Keene might have to pay the plaintiff. This third-party action ended, however, in May 1980, when the District Court granted Keene's motion for voluntary dismissal of its complaint.
ties in contracts between the Government and Keene, a theory only the Court of Federal Claims may entertain, given the amount of damages requested, under the Tucker Act, 28 U. S. C. § 1491(a)(1).
Keene's next move against the Government came the following month when it filed a 23-count complaint in the District Court for the Southern District of New York. Keene Corp. v. United States, No.80-CIV-0401(GLG). The pleadings tracked, almost verbatim, the lengthy factual allegations of Keene I, but the action was recast in terms of various tort theories, again seeking damages for any amounts paid by Keene to asbestos claimants. Keene also added a takings claim for the Government's allegedly improper recoupment, under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA), 5 U. S. C. § 8132, of money paid by Keene to claimants covered by the Act. For this, Keene sought restitution of "the amounts of money which have been, or which may be, recouped by [the United States] from claimants from judgments and settlements paid by Keene," App. 37, as well as an injunction against the Government's collection of FECA refunds thereafter. This suit suffered dismissal in September 1981, on the basis of sovereign immunity, which the court held unaffected by any waiver found in the Federal Tort Claims Act, the Suits in Admiralty Act, and the Public Vessels Act. The Court of Appeals affirmed, Keene Corp. v. United States, 700 F.2d 836 (CA2 1983), and we denied certiorari, 464 U. S. 864 (1983).
Cert. F10-F11. Again, the recoupments are said to be takings of Keene's property without due process and just compensation, contrary to the Fifth Amendment. See 28 U. S. C. § 1491(a)(1) (covering, inter alia, certain claims "founded ... upon the Constitution").
After the Court of Federal Claims raised the present jurisdictional issue sua sponte in similar actions brought by Johns-Manville, the Government invoked 28 U. S. C. § 1500 in moving to dismiss both Keene I and Keene II, as well as like actions by five other asbestos product manufacturers. With trial imminent in the Johns-Manville cases, the Court of Federal Claims initially granted the motion to dismiss only as to them. Keene Corp. v. United States, 12 Cl. Ct. 197 (1987). That decision was affirmed on appeal, JohnsManville Corp. v. United States, 855 F.2d 1556 (CA Fed. 1988) (per curiam), cert. denied, 489 U. S. 1066 (1989), and the Court of Federal Claims then entered dismissals in Keene I and Keene II, among other cases, finding that when Keene had filed both Keene I and Keene II, it had the same claims pending in other courts. 17 Cl. Ct. 146 (1989). While a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed on the ground that § 1500 was inapplicable because no other claim had been pending elsewhere when the Court of Federal Claims entertained and acted upon the Government's motion to dismiss, UNR Industries, Inc. v. United States, 911 F.2d 654 (1990), the Court of Appeals, en bane, subsequently vacated the panel opinion, 926 F.2d 1109 (1990), and affirmed the trial court's dismissals, 962 F.2d 1013 (1992). We granted certiorari. 506 U. S. 939 (1992).
2 When Keene filed its complaints, § 1500 referred to the "Court of Claims" rather than the "United States Court of Federal Claims." See 28 U. S. C. § 1500 (1976 ed.). Section 1500 has since been amended twice, first to substitute "United States Claims Court" for "Court of Claims," Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982, § 133(e)(1), 96 Stat. 40, and then to substitute "Court of Federal Claims" for "Claims Court," Court of Federal Claims Technical and Procedural Improvements Act of 1992, § 902(a), 106 Stat. 4516. See also n. 1, supra.
with minor changes into § 1067 of the Revised Statutes of 1878; then reenacted without further change as § 154 of the Judicial Code of 1911, Act of Mar. 3, 1911, ch. 231, § 154, 36 Stat. 1138, 28 U. S. C. § 260 (1940 ed.); and finally adopted in its present form by the Act of June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 942, 28 U. S. C. § 1500.
Congress has the constitutional authority to define the jurisdiction of the lower federal courts, see Finley v. United States, 490 U. S. 545, 548 (1989), and, once the lines are drawn, "limits upon federal jurisdiction ... must be neither disregarded nor evaded," Owen Equipment & Erection Co. v. Kroger, 437 U. S. 365, 374 (1978). In § 1500, Congress has employed its power to provide that the Court of Federal Claims "shall not have jurisdiction" over a claim, "for or in respect to which" the plaintiff "has [a suit or process] pending" in any other court. In applying the jurisdictional bar here by looking to the facts existing when Keene filed each of its complaints, the Court of Federal Claims followed the longstanding principle that "the jurisdiction of the Court depends upon the state of things at the time of the action brought." Mollan v. Torrance, 9 Wheat. 537, 539 (1824) (Marshall, C. J.); see Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd. v. Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Inc., 484 U. S. 49, 69 (1987) (opinion of SCALIA, J.); St. Paul Mercury Indemnity Co. v. Red Cab Co., 303 U. S. 283, 289-290 (1938); Minneapolis & St. Louis R. Co. v. Peoria & P. U. R. Co., 270 U. S. 580, 586 (1926).
Keene would have us dispense with the rule here. Brief for Petitioner 33. Assuming that we could,3 however, Keene gives us nothing to convince us that we should. Keene argues that if § 1500 spoke of "jurisdiction to render judgment" instead of "jurisdiction" pure and simple, the phrase would "all but preclude" application of the time-of-filing rule. Id., at 34. But, without deciding whether such a change of terms would carry such significance, we have only to say that § 1500 speaks of "jurisdiction," without more, whereas some nearby sections of Title 28 use the longer phrase. This fact only underscores our duty to refrain from reading a phrase into the statute when Congress has left it out. "'[W]here Congress includes particular language in one section of a statute but omits it in another ... , it is generally presumed that Congress acts intentionally and purposely in the disparate inclusion or exclusion.'" Russello v. United States, 464 U. S. 16, 23 (1983) (citation omitted).
3 On this score, Keene cites Newman-Green, Inc. v. Alfonzo-Larrain, 490 U. S. 826 (1989), for the proposition that the Court can rely on practical considerations to create exceptions to the time-of-filing rule. Brief for Petitioner 35-36. We need not decide whether Keene's reading is accurate, for Keene has not shown that we should, even if we could. We do note, however, that Newman-Green reiterated the principle that "[t]he existence of federal jurisdiction ordinarily depends on the facts as they exist when the complaint is filed." 490 U. S., at 830.
The statutory notion of comparable claims is more elusive.
By precluding jurisdiction over the claim of a plaintiff with a suit pending in another court "for or in respect to" the same claim, § 1500 requires a comparison between the claims raised in the Court of Federal Claims and in the other lawsuit. The exact nature of the things to be compared is not illuminated, however, by the awkward formulation of § 1500. Nor does it advance the ball very far to recognize from the statute's later reference to "the cause of action alleged in such suit or process," that the term "claim" is used here synonymously with "cause of action," see Black's Law Dictionary 247 (6th ed. 1990) (defining "claim" as "cause of action"), since, as both parties admit, "cause of action," like "claim," can carry a variety of meanings. See Brief for Petitioner 18; Brief for United States 15; see also JohnsManville Corp., 855 F. 2d, at 1560.
Inc. v. United States, 962 F.2d 1013, 1030, n. 5 (CA Fed. 1992) (Plager, J., dissenting).
5We have had one other encounter with this statute, in Matson Navigation Co. v. United States, 284 U. S. 352 (1932), where we relied on the plain words of § 154 to hold that the statute did not apply where the Court of Claims plaintiff had brought suit in another court against the United States, rather than against an agent of the United States, for the same claim. When Congress reenacted the statute in 1948, it added the phrase "against the United States" to close this loophole. See Act of June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 942; Johns-Manville Corp. v. United States, 855 F. 2d 1556, 1566-1567, and n. 15 (CA Fed. 1988).
standard), he sued in the Court of Claims on allegations that he had been underpaid by more than $4.3 million. Earlier the same day, the plaintiff had filed a suit in Federal District Court "for the recovery of the same amount for the same gold bullion surrendered." Id., at 439. The Court of Claims observed that "[t]he only distinction between the two suits instituted in the District Court and in this court is that the action in the District Court was made to sound in tort and the action in this court was alleged on contract." Id., at 440. Because the two actions were based on the same operative facts, the court dismissed the Court of Claims action for lack of jurisdiction, finding it to be "clear that the word 'claim,' as used in section 154, ... has no reference to the legal theory upon which a claimant seeks to enforce his demand." Ibid.
6 Because the issue is not presented on the facts of this case, we need not decide whether two actions based on the same operative facts, but seeking completely different relief, would implicate § 1500. Cf. Casman v. United States, 135 Ct. Cl. 647 (1956); Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, FSB v. United States, 864 F.2d 137 (CA Fed. 1988).
not apply when there is no "settled judicial construction" at the time of reenactment). The decision in British American Tobacco strikes us, moreover, as a sensible reading of the statute, for it honors Congress's decision to limit Court of Federal Claims jurisdiction not only as to claims "for ... which" the plaintiff has sued in another court, but as to those "in respect to which" he has sued elsewhere as well. While the latter language does not set the limits of claim identity with any precision, it does make it clear that Congress did not intend the statute to be rendered useless by a narrow concept of identity providing a correspondingly liberal opportunity to maintain two suits arising from the same factual foundation.
7 Keene argued in its petition for certiorari that the claim it raised in its third-party action in Miller was not based on the same facts as its complaint in Keene I. Keene did not press this argument after we granted the writ, and, in any event, we see no reason to disturb the rulings to the contrary by both courts below. See 962 F. 2d, at 1024 ("[W]e have no quarrel with the [Court of Federal Claims] determination that the underlying facts in Miller and Keene I are the same").
acted to accomplish. Keene fails to explain how the original statute would have applied to the cotton claimants, whose tort actions brought in other courts were beyond the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims, just as tort cases are outside the jurisdiction of the Court of Federal Claims today.8 Keene's theory was squarely rejected in British American Tobacco,9 and it must be rejected again this time.
8 It is not that Keene has not tried to meet the objection. Keene assumes, contrary to the plain text, that the statute here is not jurisdictional, arguing instead that it was meant to supplement the formalistic 19th-century concept of res judicata. According to Keene, res judicata would not have barred a cotton claimant from instigating an action against a federal officer who had acted for the Government, even though the claimant had lost an otherwise identical action against the Government itself (and vice versa), the difference between the named defendants being significant at that time. On the assumption that the statute eliminated nonidentity of parties defendant as a barrier to the application of res judicata, Keene then argues that causes of action were treated as identical in those days if the same evidence was used to prove multiple claims. On this view of the law, Keene concludes, multiple cotton claims would have been treated as the same, and the statute would have barred the Court of Claims suit, just as Congress intended. Reply Brief for Petitioner 7. Even on its own terms, however, this argument fails, for the Court of Claims in 1868 had no jurisdiction to try a tort action for conversion, however similar it might have been for res judicata purposes to the statutory action within that court's jurisdiction. Accordingly, under Keene's claim-splitting theory, the conversion action would not have been treated as identical with the statutory action; each would have survived, leaving the statute useless to solve the problem Congress was addressing.
Finally, Keene takes the tack that if we adopt the Court of Appeals's construction of § 1500, we will be announcing "a new rule of law" that ought to be applied only prospectively under the test set out in Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U. S. 97 (1971). Brief for Petitioner 42-43. Even assuming that this call for "pure prospectivity," see James B. Beam Distilling Co. v. Georgia, 501 U. S. 529, 544 (1991) (opinion of SOUTER, J.), might fairly fall within the questions presented,lO there is no need to address it because, as the Government points out, Keene's claims were dismissed under well-settled law.
The Court of Appeals, to be sure, announced that it was overruling five cases: Tecon Engineers, Inc. v. United States, 170 Ct. Cl. 389, 343 F.2d 943 (1965), cert. denied, 382 U. S. 976 (1966); Casman v. United States, 135 Ct. Cl. 647 (1956); Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, FSB v. United States, 864 F. 2d 137 (CA Fed. 1988); Brown v. United States, 175 Ct. Cl. 343, 358 F.2d 1002 (1966) (per curiam); and Hossein v. United States, 218 Ct. Cl. 727 (1978) (per curiam). And while Keene contends that nothing less than these repudiations of precedent would have sufficed to dismiss its suits, we read the five cases as supporting neither Keene's position that the Court of Federal Claims had jurisdiction over its cases nor its plea for pure prospectivity of the overruling decision.
Johns-Manville Corp., supra, at 1562-1563; Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Drydock Corp. v. United States, 138 Ct. Cl. 648, 652, 152 F. Supp. 236, 238 (1957); Hill v. United States, 8 Cl. Ct. 382, 386-388 (1985). Accordingly, Keene's appeal to "well-established law" is misplaced.
10 The questions on which we granted certiorari contain no direct mention of prospectivity, see Pet. for Cert. i, although Keene did argue in its petition that Tecon Engineers should be overruled only prospectively, see Pet. for Cert. 13, and the Court of Appeals did consider, and reject, the argument that its ruling should only be prospectively applied, see 962 F. 2d, at 1025.
11 We note that both the Brown and Hossein courts failed to consider the possibility that the District Court, in such a situation, could transfer the case to the Court of Federal Claims under a statute first adopted in 1960. See Act of Sept. 13, 1960, § 1, 74 Stat. 912 (codified at 28 U. S. C. § 1406(c) (1964 ed.)); Act of Apr. 2, 1982, § 301(a), 96 Stat. 55 (codified at 28 U. S. C. § 1631).
12 Brown and Hossein do not survive our ruling today, for they ignored the time-of-filing rule discussed in Part II -A, supra.
13 Keene also asks the Court to "make clear that, if Keene refiles the same claims, equitable tolling would be available to eliminate any limitations bar." Brief for Petitioner 45. But any response to this request would be an advisory opinion.
14 A recent attempt to repeal § 1500 failed in Congress. See S. 2521, 102d Cong., 2d Sess., § W(c) (1992); 138 Congo Rec. S4830-84832 (Apr. 2, 1992).
apparent hardship," Corona Coal, 263 U. S., at 540, and therefore enforce the statute.
"'The object of this amendment is to put to their election that large class of persons having cotton claims particularly, who have sued the Secretary of the Treasury and the other agents of the Government in more than a hundred suits that are now pending, scattered over the country here and there, and who are here at the same time endeavoring to prosecute their claims, and have filed them in the Court of Claims, so that after they put the Government to the expense of beating them once in a court of law they can turn around and try the whole question in the Court of Claims. The object is to put that class of persons to their election either to leave the Court of Claims or to leave the other courts. I am sure everybody will agree to that.''' UNR Industries, Inc. v. United States, 962 F.2d 1013, 1018 (CA Fed. 1992) (quoting 81 Congo Globe, 40th Cong., 2d Sess., 2769 (1868).
lation of an executive department, or upon any express or implied contract with the United States," 28 U. S. C. § 1491(a)(1), and "jurisdiction to render judgment upon any claim by a disbursing officer of the United States ... ," 28 U. S. C. § 1496 (emphases added). See also §§ 1497 and 1499 (granting jurisdiction to "render judgment" over other claims).2 Section 1500, by contrast, "takes away jurisdiction even though the subject matter of the suit may appropriately be before the Claims Court." UNR Industries, Inc. v. United States, 962 F.2d 1013, 1028 (CA Fed. 1992) (Plager, J., dissenting) (emphasis deleted). It is only reasonable to assume that the "jurisdiction" § 1500 takes away is the same as the "jurisdiction" surrounding Code provisions bestow: the jurisdiction to enter judgment.
2 Sections immediately following § 1500 use similar language with respect to other types of claims. See 28 U. S. C. §§ 1503, 1508.
of a century ago, see Brown v. United States, 175 Ct. Cl. 343, 358 F.2d 1002 (1966),3 and I see no reason to interpret it now as a broader prohibition on pretrial proceedings.
3 "At the present time, therefore, the only claim for just compensation pending in a court is that stated in the plaintiffs' petition in this court.
"In these circumstances we grant the motions for rehearing, vacate our prior order dismissing the petition, and now deny the defendant's motion to dismiss. Our earlier order of dismissal was predicated on the fact that the other 'claim remains pending in the said District Court.' That is no longer true, and the claim is no longer 'pending in any other court.' In this situation, we do not believe that 28 U. S. C. § 1500 requires us to deprive plaintiffs of the only forum they have in which to test their demand for just compensation." Brown, 175 Ct. Cl., at 348, 358 F. 2d, at 1004.
See also Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, FSB v. United States, 864 F. 2d 137, 139 (CA Fed. 1988) (staying Court of Federal Claims action while District Court action pending); Prillman v. United States, 220 Ct. Cl. 677, 679 (1979) (same).
4 As Justice Holmes pointed out, in a similar context, "no one would say that the words of the Mississippi statute of frauds, 'An action shall not be brought whereby to charge a defendant,' go to the jurisdiction of the court. Of course it could be argued that logically they had that scope, but common sense would revolt." Fauntleroy v. Lum, 210 U. S. 230, 235 (1908) (internal citation omitted).
dismissed if the plaintiff chose not to abandon the claim pending elsewhere.
In any event, when the text of § 1500 was revised in 1948, Congress removed the prohibition on filing. The Court nevertheless assumes that the section should be construed as originally drafted, because Congress did not intend the 1948 revisions of the Judicial Code to make substantive changes in the law. See ante, at 209. In fact, the 1948 revision did work a significant substantive change by enlarging the class of suits subject to dismissal to include suits against the United States, as well as suits against its agents. See ante, at 212, n. 6; Matson Navigation Co. v. United States, 284 U. S. 352, 355-356 (1932); see also Schwartz, Section 1500 of the Judicial Code and Duplicate Suits Against the Government and Its Agents, 55 Geo. L. J. 573, 579-580 (1967). But even if it were the case that Congress intended no substantive change in 1948, that would mean only that the present text is the best evidence of what the law has always meant, and that the language of the prior version cannot be relied upon to support a different reading.
In my judgment, the Court of Claims properly construed § 1500 in 1966 when it held that the provision merely requires claimants to choose between alternative pending claims before proceeding to trial. See Brown, 175 Ct. Cl., at 348, 358 F. 2d, at 1004. The statute limits the power of the Court of Federal Claims to render judgments, and thus the ability of a plaintiff to prosecute simultaneous actions against the Government, but it does not prevent the Court of Federal Claims from allowing a case to remain on its docket until the claimant has made the required election. Even if I did not agree with this interpretation of § 1500, however, I would nevertheless endorse it here, as litigants have a right to rely on a longstanding and reasoned judicial construction of an important statute that Congress has not seen fit to alter. See McNally v. United States, 483 U. S.
Admittedly, this is a badly drafted statute. Viewed against a legal landscape that has changed dramatically since the days of the cotton claimants, see ante, at 206-207, it does not lend itself easily to sensible construction. Moreover, the Court's interpretation of § 1500 today may have the salutary effect of hastening its repeal or amendment. N evertheless, a reading that is faithful not only to the statutory text but also to the statute's stated purpose is surely preferable to the harsh result the Court endorses here. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
5 The Court seeks to minimize these concerns by suggesting that the Brown line of cases on which petitioner relies would not in any event apply here, because petitioner's District Court action was not dismissed on the grounds that it fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Federal Claims. Ante, at 216-217. In my view, Brown, and cases like it, do not warrant such a narrow reading, but stand instead for the broader proposition that a former district court action, once dismissed, no longer bars adjudication in the Court of Federal Claims. See n. 2, supra; National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. v. United States, 8 Cl. Ct. 274, 275-276 (1985) (in case of concurrent jurisdiction, providing for automatic reinstatement of Court of Federal Claims action upon dismissal of district court suit). That the Court of Appeals felt it necessary to overrule Brown on the facts of this case, see UNR Industries, 962 F. 2d, at 1022, suggests a similar understanding of Brown's scope.

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