Source: http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/465/848/case.html
Timestamp: 2014-03-15 17:59:56
Document Index: 301233045

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 545', '§ 1592', '§ 1618', '§ 1346', '§ 2680', '§ 2680', '§ 2680', '§ 2680', '§ 2680', '§ 2680']

Kosak v. United States - 465 U.S. 848 (1984) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center
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Case	U.S. Supreme CourtKosak v. United States, 465 U.S. 848 (1984)Kosak v. United StatesNo. 82-618Argued November 7, 1983Decided March 21, 1984465 U.S. 848CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
MARSHALL, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BURGER, C.J., and BRENNAN, WHITE, BLACKMUN, POWELL, REHNQUIST, and O'CONNOR, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., filed a dissenting opinion,post, p. 465 U. S. 862. Page 465 U. S. 849
Petitioner was charged with smuggling his art collection into the country, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 545. After a jury trial, he was acquitted. The Customs Service then notified petitioner that the seized objects were subject to civil forfeiture under 19 U.S.C. § 1592, which at the time permitted confiscation of goods brought into the United States "by Page 465 U. S. 850 means of any false statement." Relying on 19 U.S.C. § 1618, petitioner filed a petition for relief from the forfeiture. [Footnote 2] The Customs Service granted the petition and returned the goods.
Alleging that some of the objects returned to him had been injured while in the custody of the Customs Service, petitioner filed an administrative complaint with the Service requesting compensation for the damage. The Customs Service denied relief. Relying on the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b), 2671-2680 (1976 ed. and Supp. V), petitioner then filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, seeking approximately $12,000 in damages for the alleged injury to his property. [Footnote 3] The Government moved for a dismissal of the complaint or for summary judgment on the ground that petitioner's claim was barred by § 2680(c). The District Court granted the Government's motion. [Footnote 4] Page 465 U. S. 851
"for injury or loss of property, or Page 465 U. S. 852 personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his office or employment."
By "damage caused by the detention itself," petitioner appears to mean harms attributable to an illegal detention, such as a decline in the economic value of detained goods (either because of depreciation or because of a drop in the price the goods will fetch), injury resulting from deprivation of the ability to make use of the goods during the period of detention, or consequential damages resulting from lack of access to the goods. [Footnote 7] The Government asks us to read the Page 465 U. S. 853 exception to cover all injuries to property sustained during its detention by customs officials. [Footnote 8]
The starting point of our analysis of these competing interpretations must, of course, be the language of § 2680(c). "[W]e assume that the legislative purpose is expressed by the ordinary meaning of the words used.'" American Tobacco Co. v. Patterson, 456 U. S. 63, 456 U. S. 68 (1982) (quoting Richards v. United States, 369 U. S. 1, 369 U. S. 9 (1962)). [Footnote 9] At first blush, Page 465 U. S. 854 the statutory language certainly appears expansive enough to support the Government's construction; the encompassing phrase, "arising in respect of," seems to sweep within the exception all injuries associated in any way with the "detention" of goods. It must be admitted that this initial reading is not ineluctable; as Judge Weis, dissenting in the Court of Appeals, pointed out, it is possible (with some effort) to read the phrase, "in respect of" as the equivalent of "as regards," and thereby to infer that "the statutory exception is directed to the fact of detention itself, and that alone." 679 F.2d at 310. But we think that the fairest interpretation of the crucial portion of the provision is the one that first springs to mind: "any claim arising in respect of" the detention of goods means any claim "arising out of" the detention of goods, and includes a claim resulting from negligent handling or storage of detained property.
"That the exception does not, and was not intended to, bar actions based on the negligent destruction, injury or loss of goods in the possession or control of the customs authorities is best illustrated by the fact that the exception immediately preceding it expressly bars actions 'arising out of the loss, miscarriage, or negligent transmission' of mail. 28 U.S.C.A. § 2680(b). If Congress had similarly wished to bar actions based on the negligent loss of goods which governmental agencies other than the postal system undertook to handle, the exception in 28 U.S.C.A. § 2680(b) shows that it would have been equal to the task. The conclusion is inescapable that it Page 465 U. S. 855 did not choose to bestow upon all such agencies general absolution from carelessness in handling property belonging to others."
We find the conclusion reached by petitioner and the Second Circuit far from "inescapable." The specificity of § 2680(b), in contrast with the generality of § 2680(c), suggests, if anything, that Congress intended the former to be less encompassing than the latter. The motivation for such an intent is not hard to find. One of the principal purposes of the Federal Tort Claims Act was to waive the Government's immunity from liability for injuries resulting from auto accidents in which employees