Source: http://www.ecases.us/case/cadc/c185602/cummings-mary-l-v-dept-of-navy
Timestamp: 2019-12-10 11:42:46
Document Index: 108548987

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 552', '§ 2674', '§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 1985', '§ 1985', '§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 2680', '§ 1985', '§ 1983', '§ 1983']

Cummings, Mary L. v. Dept of Navy, D.C. Circuit, US Court of Appeals Cases, Federal Courts, COURT CASE
The appellant, Mary Louise Cummings, seeks reversal of the district court's September 6, 2000 dismissal of her Privacy Act lawsuit against the Department of the Navy (Navy). The district court held that the doctrine of Feres v. United States, 340 U.S. 135, 71 S. Ct. 153, 95 L. Ed. 152 (1950), bars a servicewoman's Privacy Act lawsuit if her injury arose out of or occurred in the course of activity "incident to service." Cummings v. Dep't of the Navy, 116 F. Supp. 2d 76, 78-82 (D.D.C.2000). The court further determined on the facts that Cummings's injury did, indeed, arise in the course of activity incident to her service. See id. at 82-84. On appeal, Cummings challenges the district court's decision on two grounds. First, she argues that the Feres doctrine does not apply to service personnel's Privacy Act claims against the military. Second, she contends that even if the doctrine does attach to such suits generally, the unauthorized release of her training record to a civilian author was not incident to service under Feres's case-specific inquiry and that her suit against the Navy, therefore, is not barred.
Reviewing the district court's grant of the Navy's motion to dismiss, we accept as true the facts that Cummings alleges in her complaint. See El-Hadad v. United Arab Emirates, 216 F.3d 29, 32 n. 5 (D.C.Cir.2000) (citing Saudi Arabia v. Nelson, 507 U.S. 349, 351, 113 S. Ct. 1471, 1474, 123 L. Ed. 2d 47 (1993)). Our review of the issues raised by Cummings's appeal is de novo. See Artis v. Greenspan, 158 F.3d 1301, 1306 (D.C.Cir.1998) ("[W]e apply the de novo standard of review to the district court's application of law to undisputed fact[s].").
In determining whether members of the armed forces may sue the military for damages under the Privacy Act, we start with the "cardinal" canon of statutory construction: "[C]ourts must presume that [the Congress] says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there." Conn. Nat'l Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249, 253-54, 112 S. Ct. 1146, 1149, 117 L. Ed. 2d 391 (1992) (citations omitted). "When the words of a statute are unambiguous, then, this first canon is also the last: `judicial inquiry is complete.'" Id. at 254, 112 S.Ct. at 1149 (quoting Rubin v. United States, 449 U.S. 424, 430, 101 S. Ct. 698, 701, 66 L. Ed. 2d 633 (1981)). With these precepts in mind, we turn to the text of the Privacy Act.
The district court correctly reminded us that "waivers of sovereign immunity must be unequivocally expressed and narrowly construed," Cummings, 116 F.Supp.2d at 81 (quoting Dorsey v. Dep't of Labor, 41 F.3d 1551, 1555 (D.C.Cir.1994)). Erroneously, however, it denied effect to the unequivocally expressed waiver contained in the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a(g). Construing a waiver of sovereign immunity narrowly, even "strictly in favor of the sovereign," means only that a court may not "enlarge[] [the waiver] beyond what the language requires." Tomasello v. Rubin, 167 F.3d 612, 618 (D.C.Cir.1999) (quoting United States v. Nordic Village, Inc., 503 U.S. 30, 34, 112 S. Ct. 1011, 1015, 117 L. Ed. 2d 181 (1992)). We need not "enlarge" by any stretch the Privacy Act's purview in order for the statute to avoid the effects of the Feres doctrine. As the district court acknowledged, "[o]n its face, the Privacy Act would appear to permit actions brought by military personnel...." Cummings, 116 F.Supp.2d at 81. And statutory text remains the best evidence of congressional intent. See Tataranowicz v. Sullivan, 959 F.2d 268, 276 (D.C.Cir.1992). The Act not only appears to, but does, permit actions brought by military personnel.
The fact that "the Privacy Act was enacted once the Feres doctrine was in place, yet does not specifically [insulate] the causes of action it creates from the effects of Feres," Cummings, 116 F.Supp.2d at 81, does not alter our conclusion. Congressional enactments are better evidence of legislative intent than is congressional silence. See Burns v. United States, 501 U.S. 129, 136, 111 S. Ct. 2182, 2186, 115 L. Ed. 2d 123 (1991) ("[A]n inference drawn from congressional silence certainly cannot be credited when it is contrary to all other textual and contextual evidence of congressional intent."); but cf. Arthur Conan Doyle, Silver Blaze, in 1 Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories 455, 475 (1986) ("I had grasped the significance of the silence of the dog, for one true inference invariably suggests others.... Obviously the midnight visitor was someone whom the dog knew well."). True, the Congress's familiarity with Feres can be presumed, see Wash. Legal Found. v. United States Sentencing Comm'n, 17 F.3d 1446, 1450 (D.C.Cir.1994) (citation omitted), but the Feres doctrine was not extended beyond the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) context until 1983. See generally Chappell v. Wallace, 462 U.S. 296, 103 S. Ct. 2362, 76 L. Ed. 2d 586 (1983) (applying Feres to constitutional tort claims under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S. Ct. 1999, 29 L. Ed. 2d 619 (1971)). When the Congress enacted the Privacy Act in 1974, therefore, it had no reason to insulate the Act from the effects of a doctrine that, at the time, applied exclusively to the FTCA.
That the Congress did not bark about Feres in enacting the Privacy Act is especially unenlightening in view of the fact that a Privacy Act lawsuit does not implicate any of the concerns that caused the Supreme Court to enunciate the Feres doctrine in the first place. Cf. Lockhart v. Fretwell, 506 U.S. 364, 373, 113 S. Ct. 838, 844, 122 L. Ed. 2d 180 (1993) (applying maxim "[c]essante ratione legis, cessat et ipsa lex" (when reason for law ceases, so does law itself)). In formulating the (oft-criticized) Feres doctrine, the Supreme Court first observed that because the FTCA provides that "[t]he United States shall be liable ... in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances," Feres, 340 U.S. at 141, 71 S.Ct. at 157 (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2674), an "obvious shortcoming" in the plaintiffs' claims was that they pointed to "no liability of a `private individual' even remotely analogous to that which they [were] asserting against the United States." Id. Second, the Court found that because of the "distinctively federal" relationship between the United States and its military forces, the Congress could not have intended the armed forces to be subject to local tort law pursuant to the FTCA's provisions. Id. at 142-44, 71 S. Ct. 153 at 157-58 (quoting United States v. Standard Oil Co., 332 U.S. 301, 67 S. Ct. 1604, 91 L. Ed. 2067 (1947)). Third, the Court found that because servicemen were already entitled to veterans' benefits, the Congress could not have meant for them to recover double compensation for their injuries by allowing them to sue under the FTCA as well. Id. at 144, 71 S.Ct. at 158. Four years after Feres, in United States v. Brown, 348 U.S. 110, 75 S. Ct. 141, 99 L. Ed. 139 (1954), the Court offered a fourth justification for military immunity from the FTCA — the "peculiar and special relationship of the soldier to his superiors, the effects of the maintenance of [tort] suits on discipline, and the extreme results that might obtain if suits under the [FTCA] were allowed for negligent orders given or negligent acts committed in the course of military duty...." Brown, 348 U.S. at 112, 75 S.Ct. at 143.
The Navy makes a superficially compelling argument that Feres's fourth concern (as expounded in Brown) mandates the doctrine's extension to Privacy Act suits. The portion of the district court order addressing the matter strengthens the Navy's case: "The [possibility] that every time a serviceman were demoted or saddled with a less than perfect performance rating he could resort to the courthouse could be a very real one if Privacy Act suits were not subject to the Feres doctrine." Cummings, 116 F.Supp.2d at 82 (quotations omitted). Although judicial reluctance to impinge on military matters is understandable in many contexts,4 it is unjustified in this setting; as we have discussed, the Congress clearly enlisted the federal courts to inquire into potential military violations of the Privacy Act. Cf. United States v. Johnson, 481 U.S. 681, 699, 107 S. Ct. 2063, 2073, 95 L. Ed. 2d 648 (1987) (Scalia, J., dissenting) ("I do not think the effect upon military discipline is so certain, or so certainly substantial, that we are justified in holding (if we are ever justified in holding) that Congress did not mean what it plainly said in the statute before us."). What is more, subjecting the Navy to suit under the Act does not permit a servicewoman like Cummings to "resort to the courthouse" simply because she does not agree with her performance ratings. Instead, the Act provides a remedy only if the military department has unlawfully released the performance rating and if the claimant establishes that she was injured as a result. See 5 U.S.C. § 552a(b) (prohibiting disclosure in certain circumstances); 5 U.S.C. § 552a(g)(1)(D) (requiring claimant to show "adverse effect" because of disclosure).
The Navy claims that because Feres has been extended beyond the FTCA context to suits under civil rights statutes and to common-law and constitutional tort actions, we must extend it as well to suits under the Privacy Act. See Br. of Appellee at 17-18 (citing, inter alia, United States v. Stanley, 483 U.S. 669, 682, 107 S. Ct. 3054, 3063, 97 L. Ed. 2d 550 (1987); Chappell, 462 U.S. at 300, 103 S.Ct. at 2365-66). It is true that we, like other circuits, have extended Feres to bar claims brought "under both 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) for deprivation of ... civil rights and under common-law tort theories." Bois v. Marsh, 801 F.2d at 468; see supra note 4; see also, e.g., Mackey v. United States, 226 F.3d 773, 776 (6th Cir.2000) (joining D.C., Second, Third, Fourth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Circuits in "hold[ing] that the Feres doctrine applies to intentional torts"); Alvarez v. Wilson, 600 F. Supp. 706, 712 (N.D.Ill.1985) (extending Feres to claims brought under § 1985(3)). But that fact in itself means nothing; we have also concluded "that the Feres doctrine and its rationale have no application to claims [brought by members of the armed forces] under the Swine Flu Act" because we cannot "imagine how [that] type of litigation could impinge on any legitimate interest in maintaining discipline within our fighting forces." Hunt v. United States, 636 F.2d 580, 599 (D.C.Cir.1980). That is, even "[d]espite the absence of a clear legislative intent" in the Swine Flu Act to insulate the legislation from the effects of Feres, we have nonetheless found it insulated. Id. at 589. Because "the duty remains ours to determine the meaning of [a particular] statute," id., and to determine whether the Congress in a particular statute intended to provide service personnel with a cause of action against the military departments, the bare fact that the Feres doctrine has been extended beyond the FTCA to other statutory contexts is not particularly probative. The Congress may provide a cause of action in some laws and leave other statutes subject to Feres; it is our job to sort out which it has done here. As the district court correctly noted, "[n]o court has yet provided an analysis of whether or not Feres should apply to actions under the Privacy Act" specifically. Cummings, 116 F.Supp.2d at 79. It would appear, then, that we have a clean slate to implement the Congress's will and to permit Cummings to seek monetary relief from the Navy for the allegedly unauthorized release of her training record to a civilian author.
Feres v. United States, 340 U.S. 135, 71 S. Ct. 153, 95 L. Ed. 152 (1950), holds that the Federal Torts Claims Act ("FTCA") waiver of sovereign immunity is inapplicable to suits by uniformed military personnel for injuries arising out of activity "incident to service." The Feres doctrine is under something of a cloud. See, e.g., United States v. Johnson, 481 U.S. 681, 700, 107 S. Ct. 2063, 2074, 95 L. Ed. 2d 648 (1987) (Scalia, J., dissenting) ("Feres was wrongly decided and heartily deserves the `widespread, almost universal criticism' it has received."). Nonetheless, the Supreme Court, this court and our fellow circuits have all consistently extended Feres beyond the FTCA. That they have done so is unsurprising for damage actions that carry a genuine risk of disrupting the hierarchical command relations among military personnel — after all, that is the risk that ultimately underlies Feres. Comparing Privacy Act damage actions with other claims that the Supreme Court and this court have found barred by Feres, I see neither any greater hint from Congress that Feres should not govern, nor any indication that Privacy Act damage claims pose less risk of interference with command relations. This leads me to the conclusion that Cummings's claim is precluded.
The Privacy Act also exempts certain military documents from protection under limited circumstances. See, e.g., 5 U.S.C. § 552a(k)(5) (discussing "investigatory material compiled solely for the purpose of determining suitability, eligibility, or qualifications for ... military service"); 5 U.S.C. § 552a(k)(7) (addressing "evaluation material used to determine potential for promotion in the armed services"). But these provisions provide no basis for refusing to apply Feres; once again, the FTCA has similar language. It exempts claims "arising out of the combatant activities of the military or naval force, or the Coast Guard, during time of war," 28 U.S.C. § 2680; yet Feres applies to all claims, combat-related or not, wartime or peacetime. See, e.g., United States v. Shearer, 473 U.S. 52, 105 S. Ct. 3039, 87 L. Ed. 2d 38 (1985) (applying Feres to claim involving crime off duty and off base).
The Supreme Court has itself extended Feres to all Bivens actions. United States v. Stanley, 483 U.S. 669, 681-84, 107 S. Ct. 3054, 3062-64, 97 L. Ed. 2d 550 (1987); Chappell v. Wallace, 462 U.S. 296, 103 S. Ct. 2362, 76 L. Ed. 2d 586 (1983). Bivens, of course, imposes liability on individual officials, as indeed does the liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) that in Bois we found subject to Feres. Thus one might write off both Stanley and Chappell, and Bois, as extensions addressed to some special anxiety that might flow from individual exposure to liability. Compare Maj. Op. at 1056 n.4. That is, of course, conceivable. But it is a rather odd spin on Feres itself, which after all involved only government liability. There is no basis in the Supreme Court opinions for some idea that the discipline issues explaining Feres depend materially on the nominal defendant. That is not surprising, in view of the widespread government provision for reimbursement of officers found liable for acts committed in the service of government. See, e.g., Huang v. Johnson, 251 F.3d 65, 70 (2d Cir.2001) (noting that the "vast majority" of § 1983 claims that the Second Circuit handles involve state indemnification of the individual defendants); see also Board of County Commissioners of Bryan County v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 436, 117 S. Ct. 1382, 1404, 137 L. Ed. 2d 626 (1997) (Breyer, J., dissenting) (listing various state statutes "authorizing indemnification of employees found liable under § 1983 for actions within the scope of their employment").
Feres is, as I observed earlier, under a cloud. The most plausible solutions seem to be (1) consistent application of its principle; (2) a rule rather arbitrarily cutting it off with the exact applications already found by the Supreme court and no more; and (3) complete abandonment. As the second and third options are available only to the Supreme Court, Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/American Express, Inc., 490 U.S. 477, 484, 109 S. Ct. 1917, 1922-23, 104 L. Ed. 2d 526 (1989); Khan v. State Oil Co., 93 F.3d 1358, 1364 (7th Cir.1996) (Posner, C.J.) ("We have been told by our judicial superiors not to read the sibylline leaves of the U.S. Reports for prophetic clues to overruling."), I would proceed with the first.
DocketNumber： 00-5348
Citation Numbers： 279 F.3d 1051
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