Source: https://secondcircuit.lexroll.com/szyka-v-u-s-secretary-of-defense-525-f-2d-62-2nd-cir-1975/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 06:38:45+00:00

Document:
JOHN C. SZYKA, APPELLANT, v. UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, APPELLEE.
No. 123, Docket 75-6003.United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.Argued October 2, 1975.
John C. Szyka, pro se.
Henry S. Cohn, Asst. U.S. Atty. (Peter C. Dorsey, U.S. Atty., for the District of Connecticut, on the brief), for appellee.
Before WATERMAN, OAKES and MESKILL, Circuit Judges.
statute of limitations had also run, 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b), and the plaintiff had omitted to exhaust his administrative remedies, 28 U.S.C. § 2675.
 We agree with Judge Zampano that if the alleged shelling were from a United States ship there would be no question but that this was a case within the admiralty jurisdiction and doubtless against the United States under 46 U.S.C. § 781 governed in turn by the two-year limitation of 46 U.S.C. § 745. See Johansen v. United States, 343 U.S. 427, 72 S.Ct. 849, 96 L.Ed. 1051 (1952). On the other hand, the case for admiralty jurisdiction in the event that the alleged shelling originated from a military installation on land is less clear. Whether such a tort would properly lie under the Suits in Admiralty Act, 46 U.S.C. §§ 741-52, however, or whether it would be actionable instead under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346, we must affirm because appellant’s suit was not timely filed.
 While The Plymouth, 70 U.S. (3 Wall.) 20, 36, 18 L.Ed. 125 (1866), has been broadly cited for the proposition that “every species of tort, however occurring, and whether on board a vessel or not, if upon the high seas or navigable waters, is of admiralty cognizance,” admiralty jurisdiction was in fact less broadly construed in the case itself. Where the cause of the damage originated on water but the damage itself was caused to buildings situated on land, jurisdiction was held not to lie. The Plymouth court found the “true meaning of the rule of locality in cases of marine torts” to require that the whole “substance and consummation” of the wrong and injury have been committed on the high seas or navigable waters. Id., at 35. As the Supreme Court recently noted, however, it “has never explicitly held that a maritime locality is the sole test of admiralty tort jurisdiction,” Executive Jet Aviation v. City of Cleveland, 409 U.S. 249, 260, 93 S.Ct. 493, 499, 34 L.Ed.2d 454 (1972); one therefore cannot automatically conclude that a tort the cause of which arises on land but the damage from which occurs on the sea is necessarily within the admiralty jurisdiction.
 If, however, this case were somehow not within the admiralty jurisdiction, but rather governed by the Federal Tort Claims Act as a suit against a United States employee (the Secretary of defense), there then would be, as the district court held, concomitant requirements that appellant seek administrative relief within two years, 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b), and exhaust his administrative remedies, 28 U.S.C. § 2675, with which appellant has not complied so that his suit is barred. See Altman v. Connelly, 456 F.2d 1114 (2d Cir. 1972); Childers v. United States, 442 F.2d 1299 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 857, 92 S.Ct. 104, 30 L.Ed.2d 99 (1971); Portis v. United States, 483 F.2d 670 (4th Cir. 1973).
 Appellant’s claim of unconstitutionality of these statutes of limitation as in violation of several Amendments is without merit. The United States’ sovereign immunity has always been upheld. Carr v. United States, 98 U.S. 433, 437-39, 25 L.Ed. 209 (1879). See Holmes, J., in Kawananakoa v. Polyblank, 205 U.S. 349, 353, 27 S.Ct. 526, 51 L.Ed. 834 (1907); Marshall J., in Cohens v. Virginia, 19 U.S. (6 Wheat.) 264, 410, 5 L.Ed. 257 (1821); Jay, J., in Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419, 478, 1 L.Ed. 440 (1793). Suits can be maintained against the United States only by its permission and in the manner prescribed by Congress and subject to restrictions it imposes. Munro v. United States, 303 U.S. 36, 41, 58 S.Ct. 421, 82 L.Ed. 633 (1938). The Admiralty Acts in question waive that immunity only on the limited basis that action be commenced within a two-year period after the alleged injury has occurred and that the statutes be otherwise complied with; this is a jurisdictional limitation not subject to waiver. Gardner v. United States, 446 F.2d 1195, 1197 (2d Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 405 U.S. 1018, 92 S.Ct. 1300, 31 L.Ed.2d 481 (1972) Isthmian Steamship Co. v. United States, 302 F.2d 69 (2d Cir. 1962). The Federal Tort Claims Act likewise requires the prior seeking of administrative relief. Morano v. United States Naval Hospital, 437 F.2d 1009 (3d Cir. 1971).
 Accordingly, the judgment must be and it hereby is affirmed.
 Appellant’s complaint alleged violation of his constitutional rights, and he subsequently moved for the convocation of a three-judge court to determine the constitutionality of the Federal Tort Claims Act statute of limitations, 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b). Judge Zampano dismissed the complaint without convening a three-judge court, and we affirm his implicit rejection of appellant’s motion as well as his dismissal of the complaint.
 The narrow holding of The Plymouth, 70 U.S. (3 Wall.) 20, 18 L.Ed. 125 (1866), was “overruled” by Congress in the Extension of Admiralty Jurisdiction Act, 62 Stat. 496, 46 U.S.C. § 740, as enacted in 1948.
cannot free appellant from the two years’ statute of limitations in any suit against the United States or its employees here.
(4th Cir. 1932) (injury on ship in dry dock). It had been said that neither the Suits in Admiralty Act nor the Public Vessels Act apply absent reference to a specific vessel of the United States. Balboa Shipping Co. v. Standard Fruit Steamship, 85 F.Supp. 312 (S.D.N.Y. 1949), appeal dismissed, 181 F.2d 109 (2d Cir. 1950). But this was prior to the addition in 1970 to § 742 of the words “or if a private person or property were involved,” Pub.L. No. 86-770, 74 Stat. 912 § 3 (Sept. 13, 1960), thereby bringing all maritime claims against the United States into the admiralty jurisdiction of the district court. Ira S. Bushey Sons, Inc. v. United States, 398 F.2d 167 (2d Cir. 1968) (United States ship in drydock); T. J. Falgout Boats, Inc. v. United States, 361 F.Supp. 838, 841-42 (C.D.Cal. 1972), aff’d, 508 F.2d 855 (9th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 1000, 95 S.Ct. 2398, 44 L.Ed.2d 667 (1975).

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