Opinion ID: 4549553
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: FTCA Judgment Bar

Text: The FTCA’s judgment bar provides that “[t]he judgment in an action under [the FTCA] shall constitute a complete bar to any action by the claimant, by reason of the same subject matter, against the employee of the government whose act or omission gave rise to the claim.” 28 U.S.C. § 2676. The judgment bar provision has no application here. The judgment bar provision precludes claims against individual defendants in two circumstances: (1) where a plaintiff brings an FTCA claim against the government and non-FTCA claims against individual defendants in the same action and obtains a judgment against the government, see Kreines v. United States, 959 F.2d 834, 838 (9th Cir. 1992); and (2) where the plaintiff brings an FTCA claim against the government, judgment is entered in favor of either party, and the plaintiff then brings a subsequent non-FTCA action against individual defendants, see Gasho v. United States, 39 F.3d 1420, 1437–38 (9th Cir. 1994); Ting v. United States, 927 F.2d 1504, 1513 n.10 (9th Cir. 1991). The purposes of this judgment bar are “to prevent dual recoveries,” Kreines, 959 F.2d at 838, to “serve[] the interests of judicial economy,” and to “foster more efficient settlement of claims,” by “encourag[ing plaintiffs] to pursue their claims concurrently in the same action, instead of in separate actions,” Gasho, 39 F.3d at 1438. Neither of those two circumstances, nor their attendant risks, is present here. Plaintiffs brought their FTCA claim, necessarily, against the United States, and their non-FTCA claims against the Agent Defendants, in the same action. They have not obtained a judgment against the government. Kreines held that “an FTCA judgment in favor of the FAZAGA V. WALLS 101 government did not bar the Bivens claim [against individual employees] when the judgments are ‘contemporaneous’ and part of the same action.” Gasho, 39 F.3d at 1437 (quoting Kreines, 959 F.2d at 838). By “contemporaneous,” Kreines did not require that judgments on the FTCA and other claims be entered simultaneously, but rather that they result from the same action. The FTCA’s judgment bar does not operate to preclude Plaintiffs’ claims against the Agent Defendants.