Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/540/614.html
Timestamp: 2019-05-27 12:41:31
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Matched Legal Cases: ['§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§552', '§2707', '§6110', '§7217', '§2707', '§2707', '§6110', '§7217', '§7217', '§7217', '§552', '§1988']

DOE v. CHAO [02-1377] | FindLaw
DOE v. CHAO [02-1377]
DOE v. CHAO, SECRETARY OF LABOR(2004)
Argued: December 3, 2003 Decided: February 24, 2004
Souter, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and O'Connor, Kennedy, and Thomas, JJ., joined, and in which Scalia, J., joined except as to the penultimate paragraph of Part III and footnote 8. Ginsburg, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Stevens and Breyer, JJ., joined. Breyer, J., filed a dissenting opinion.
A divided panel of the Fourth Circuit affirmed in part but reversed on Doe's claim, holding the United States entitled to summary judgment across the board. 306 F. 3d 170 (2002). The Circuit treated the $1,000 statutory minimum as available only to plaintiffs who suffered actual damages because of the agency's violation, id., at 176-179, and then found that Doe had not raised a triable issue of fact about actual damages, having submitted no corroboration for his claim of emotional distress, such as evidence of physical symptoms, medical treatment, loss of income, or impact on his behavior. In fact, the only indication of emotional affliction was Doe's conclusory allegations that he was " 'torn ... all to pieces' " and " 'greatly concerned and worried' " because of the disclosure of his Social Security number and its potentially " 'devastating' " consequences. Id., at 181.
Doe petitioned for review of the holding that some actual damages must be proven before a plaintiff may receive the minimum statutory award. See Pet. for Cert. i. Because the Fourth Circuit's decision requiring proof of actual damages conflicted with the views of other Circuits, see, e.g., Orekoya v. Mooney, 330 F. 3d 1, 7-8 (CA1 2003); Wilborn v. Department of Health and Human Servs., 49 F. 3d 597, 603 (CA9 1995); Waters v. Thornburgh, 888 F. 2d 870, 872 (CADC 1989); Johnson v. Department of Treasury, 700 F. 2d 971, 977, and n. 12 (CA5 1983); Fitzpatrick v. IRS, 665 F. 2d 327, 330-331 (CA11 1982), we granted certiorari. 539 U. S. ___ (2003). We now affirm.
In this Privacy Act suit brought under 5 U. S. C. §552a(g)(1)(D), the Government concedes the alleged violation and does not challenge the District Court's finding that the agency in question (the Department of Labor) acted in an intentional or willful manner. Tr. of Oral Arg. 35; Brief for Respondent (I). Nor does the Government here contest that Buck Doe, the only petitioner before us, suffered an "adverse effect" from the Privacy Act violation. The case therefore cleanly presents a sole issue for this Court's resolution: Does a claimant who has suffered an "adverse effect"--in this case and typically, emotional anguish--from a federal agency's intentional or willful Privacy Act violation, but has proved no "actual damages" beyond psychological harm, qualify as "a person entitled to recovery" within the meaning of §552a(g)(4)(A)? In accord with Circuit Judge Michael, who disagreed with the Fourth Circuit's majority on the need to show actual damages, I would answer that question yes.
I would adhere to the interpretation of the key statutory terms advanced by most courts of appeals. As interpreted by those courts, §552a(g)(4) authorizes a minimum $1,000 award that need not be hinged to proof of actual damages. See Orekoya v. Mooney, 330 F. 3d 1, 5 (CA1 2003) (§552a(g)(4) makes available "[b]oth 'actual damages sustained by the individual' and statutory minimum damages of $1,000"); Wilborn v. Department of Health and Human Servs., 49 F. 3d 597, 603 (CA9 1995) ("statutory minimum of $1,000" under §552a(g)(4)(A) meant to provide plaintiffs "with 'no provable damages' the incentive to sue" (quoting Fitzpatrick v. IRS, 665 F. 2d 327, 330 (CA11 1982))); Waters v. Thornburgh, 888 F. 2d 870, 872 (CADC 1989) (If a plaintiff establishes that she suffered an "adverse effect" from an "intentional or willful" violation of §552a(e)(2), "the plaintiff is entitled to the greater of $1,000 or the actual damages sustained." (internal quotation marks omitted)); Johnson v. Department of Treasury, IRS, 700 F. 2d 971, 977, and n. 12 (CA5 1983) (Even without proof of actual damages, "[t]he statutory minimum of $1,000 [under §552a(g)(4)(A)], of course, is recoverable."); Fitzpatrick, 665 F. 2d, at 331 ("Because [the plaintiff] proved only that he suffered a general mental injury from the disclosure, he could not recover beyond the statutory $1,000 minimum damages, costs, and reasonable attorneys' fees [under §552a(g)(4)]."); cf. Quinn v. Stone, 978 F. 2d 126, 131 (CA3 1992) ("adverse effect" but not "actual damages" is a "necessary" element "to maintain a suit for damages under the catch-all provision of 5 U. S. C. §552a(g)(1)(D)" (internal quotation marks omitted)); Parks v. IRS, 618 F. 2d 677, 680, 683 (CA10 1980) (plaintiffs seeking "the award of a minimum of $1,000 damages together with attorney's fees" under §552a(g)(4) state a claim by alleging the agency acted intentionally or willfully when it illegally disclosed protected information, causing "psychological damage or harm"). But see Hudson v. Reno, 130 F. 3d 1193, 1207 (CA6 1997) ("A final basis for affirming the District Court's decision with respect to [the plaintiff]'s claims under the Privacy Act is her failure to show 'actual damages,' as required by [§552a(g)(4)]."), overruled in part on other grounds, Pollard v. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., 532 U. S. 843 (2001); Molerio v. FBI, 749 F. 2d 815, 826 (CADC 1984) ("This cause of action under [§§552a(g)(1)(C) and (g)(4)(A)] requires, however, not merely an intentional or willful failure to maintain accurate records, but also 'actual damages sustained' as a result of such failure.").
The Government, although recognizing that "actual damages" may be slender and easy to generate, fears depletion of the federal fisc were the Court to adopt Doe's reading of §552a(g)(4). Brief for Respondent 22-23, n. 5. Experience does not support those fears. As the Government candidly acknowledged at oral argument: "[W]e have not had a problem with enormous recoveries against the Government up to this point." Tr. of Oral Arg. 35. No doubt mindful that Congress did not endorse massive recoveries, the District Court in this very case denied class-action certification, see App. to Pet. for Cert. 65a, and other courts have similarly refused to certify suits seeking damages under §552a(g)(4) as class actions. See, e.g., Schmidt v. Department of Veterans Affairs, 218 F. R. D. 619, 637 (ED Wis. 2003) (denying class certification on ground that each individual would have to prove he "suffered an adverse effect as a result of the [agency]'s failure to comply with [the Act]"); Lyon v. United States, 94 F. R. D. 69, 76 (WD Okla. 1982) ("In Privacy Act damages actions, questions affecting only individual members greatly outweigh questions of law and fact common to the class."). Furthermore, courts have disallowed the runaway liability that might ensue were they to count every single wrongful disclosure as a discrete basis for a $1,000 award. See, e.g., Tomasello v. Rubin, 167 F. 3d 612, 618 (CADC 1999) (holding that 4,500 "more-or-less contemporaneous transmissions of the same record" by facsimile constituted one "act," entitling the plaintiff to a single recovery of $1,000 in damages (internal quotation marks omitted)).
Congress has used language similar to §552a(g)(4) in other privacy statutes. See 18 U. S. C. §2707(c);7 26 U. S. C. §6110(j)(2);8 26 U. S. C. §7217(c) (1976 ed., Supp. V).9 These other statutes have been understood to permit recovery of the $1,000 statutory minimum despite the absence of proven actual damages. See H. R. Rep. No. 99-647, p. 74 (1986) ("Damages [under 18 U. S. C. §2707(c)] include actual damages, any lost profits but in no case less than $1,000."); S. Rep. No. 99-541, p. 43 (1986) ("[D]amages under [18 U. S. C. §2707(c)] includ[e] the sum of actual damages suffered by the plaintiff and any profits made by the violator as the result of the violation ... with minimum statutory damages of $1,000 ... and ... reasonable attorney's fees and other reasonable litigation costs."); H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 94-1515, p. 475 (1976) (Title 26 U. S. C. §6110(j)(2) "creates a civil remedy for intentional or willful failure of the IRS to make required deletions or to follow the procedures of this section, including minimum damages of $1,000 plus costs."); S. Rep. No. 94-938, p. 348 (1976) ("Because of the difficulty in establishing in monetary terms the damages sustained by a taxpayer as the result of the invasion of his privacy caused by an unlawful disclosure of his returns or return information, [26 U. S. C. §7217(c)] provides that these damages would, in no event, be less than liquidated damages of $1,000 for each disclosure."). See also Johnson v. Sawyer, 120 F. 3d 1307, 1313 (CA5 1997) ("Pursuant to [26 U. S. C.] §7217, a plaintiff is entitled to his actual damages sustained as a result of an unauthorized disclosure (including punitive damages for willful or grossly negligent disclosures) or to liquidated damages of $1,000 per such disclosure, whichever is greater, as well as the costs of the action."); Rorex v. Traynor, 771 F. 2d 383, 387-388 (CA8 1985) ("We do not think that hurt feelings alone constitute actual damages compensable under [26 U. S. C. §7217(c)]. Accordingly, the jury's award of $30,000 in actual damages must be vacated. The taxpayers are each entitled to the statutory minimum award of $1,000."). As Circuit Judge Michael, dissenting from the Fourth Circuit's disposition of Doe's claim, trenchantly observed: "[T]he remedy of minimum statutory damages is a fairly common feature of federal legislation... . In contrast, I am not aware of any statute in which Congress has provide[d] for a statutory minimum to actual damages." 306 F. 3d, 170, 195 (2002) (opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part) (internal quotation marks omitted).
That is to say, the lower courts have interpreted the phrase restrictively, essentially applying it where the Government's violation of the Act is in bad faith. See, e.g., Albright v. United States, 732 F. 2d 181, 189 (CADC 1984) (the term means "without grounds for believing [an action] to be lawful, or by flagrantly disregarding others' rights under the Act"); see also, e.g., Scrimgeour v. IRS, 149 F. 3d 318, 326 (CA4 1998) (same); Wisdom v. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 713 F. 2d 422, 424-435 (CA8 1983) (same); Pippinger v. Rubin, 129 F. 3d 519, 530 (CA10 1997) (same); Hudson v. Reno, 130 F. 3d 1193, 1205 (CA6 1997) (similar), overruled in part on other grounds, Pollard v. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., 532 U. S. 843, 848 (2001); Moskiewicz v. Department of Agriculture, 791 F. 2d 561, 564 (CA7 1986) (similar); Wilborn v. Department of Health and Human Servs., 49 F. 3d 597, 602
(CA9 1995) (similar). But cf. Covert v. Harrington, 876 F. 2d 751, 757 (CA9 1989) (apparently applying a broader standard).
Nor are we convinced by the analysis mentioned in the dissenting opinion in the Court of Appeals, that any plaintiff who can demonstrate that he was adversely affected by intentional or willful agency action is entitled to costs and reasonable attorney's fees under §552a(g)(4)(B), and is for that reason "a person entitled to recovery" under subsection (g)(4)(A). See 306 F. 3d 170, 188-189 (CA4 2002). Instead of treating damages as a recovery entitling a plaintiff to costs and fees, see, e.g., 42 U. S. C. §1988(b) (allowing "a reasonable attorney's fee" to a "prevailing party" under many federal civil rights statutes); Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U. S. 240, 247-258 (1975) (discussing history of American courts' power to award fees and costs to prevailing plaintiffs), this analysis would treat costs and fees as the recovery entitling a plaintiff to minimum damages; it would get the cart before the horse.
The Courts of Appeals are divided on the precise definition of actual damages. Compare Fitzpatrick v. IRS, 665 F. 2d 327, 331 (CA11 1982) (actual damages are restricted to pecuniary loss), with Johnson v. Department of Treasury, 700 F. 2d 971, 972-974 (CA5 1983) (actual damages can cover adequately demonstrated mental anxiety even without any out-of-pocket loss). That issue is not before us, however, since the petition for certiorari did not raise it for our review. We assume without deciding that the Fourth Circuit was correct to hold that Doe's complaints in this case did not rise to the level of alleging actual damages. We do not suggest that out-of-pocket expenses are necessary for recovery of the $1,000 minimum; only that they suffice to qualify under any view of actual damages.
Circuit Judge Michael, who dissented from the Fourth Circuit's judgment as to petitioner Buck Doe but agreed with his colleagues on this point, noted: "[A]dverse effects must be proven rather than merely presumed ... ." 306 F. 3d 170, 187 (2002) (opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part). Doe had declared in his affidavit that "no amount of money could compensate [him] for worry and fear of not knowing when someone would use [his] name and Social Security number to establish credit, a new identity, change [his] address, use [his] checking account or even get credit cards." App. 15. Doe's several co-plaintiffs, against whom summary judgment was entered and unanimously affirmed on appeal, made no such declaration.