Opinion ID: 518427
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Conn's claim satisfied the presentment requirement of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2675(a).

Text: 8 The statutory presentment requirement which Conn must satisfy before his suit against the United States will be heard in court is contained in 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2675(a) which provides, in pertinent part: 9 An action shall not be instituted upon a claim against the United States ... unless that claimant shall have first presented the claim to the appropriate Federal agency and his claim shall have been finally denied by the agency in writing and sent by certified or registered mail. 10 In elaborating on when a claim has been presented to an administrative agency pursuant to section 2675(a), 28 C.F.R. Sec. 14.2(a) provides: 11 [A] claim shall be deemed to have been presented when a Federal agency receives from a claimant, his duly authorized agent or legal representative, an executed Standard Form 95 or other written notification of an incident, accompanied by a claim for money damages in a sum certain for ... personal injury ... alleged to have occurred by reason of the incident; and the title or legal capacity of the person signing, and is accompanied by evidence of his authority to present a claim on behalf of the claimant as agent, executor, administrator, parent, guardian, or other representative. 12 The Form 95 in which Conn's claim was presented to the Bureau was signed by Salyer as Conn's attorney but was not accompanied by any evidence substantiating Salyer's authority to file the claim on behalf of Conn. The information filed with the Bureau therefore did not satisfy the requirements of 28 C.F.R. Sec. 14.2(a). However, this court in Douglas v. United States, 658 F.2d 445, 447-48 (6th Cir.1981), determined that the regulations in 28 C.F.R. Secs. 14.1-14.11 govern administrative settlement proceedings; they do not set federal jurisdictional prerequisites. By failing to comply with the regulations promulgated under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2672, 2 a claimant loses only the opportunity to settle his or her claim outside the courts. Douglas, 658 F.2d at 448 (quoting Adams v. United States, 615 F.2d 284, 290 (5th Cir.1980)). See also Knapp v. United States, 844 F.2d 376, 379 (6th Cir.1988) (quoting this same language from Adams ); Warren v. United States Dep't of Interior Bureau of Land Management, 724 F.2d 776, 778 (9th Cir.1984) (en banc) (We find the relevant statutes and their legislative histories reveal that Congress did not intend to treat regulations promulgated pursuant to section 2672 as jurisdictional prerequisites under section 2675(a).) (footnote omitted). 13 The Douglas court determined that presentment pursuant to section 2675 is satisfied where the claimant (1) gives the agency written notice of his or her claim sufficient to enable the agency to investigate and (2) places a value on his or her claim. Douglas, 658 F.2d at 447 (quoting Adams, 615 F.2d at 289). In a well-reasoned opinion, the District of Columbia Circuit examined the presentment requirement of section 2675(a). GAF Corp. v. United States, 818 F.2d 901 (D.C.Cir.1987). In GAF, the court determined that Congress did not impose on claimants the burden of substantiating their claims as part of the presentment process, it made a statutory precondition to filing suit. Id. at 919. The court concluded: 14 The claimants have provided the court with notice sufficient to entitle them to a trial on the merits, and it is at that juncture, rather than as jurisdictional grounds, that the task of substantiating these claims in greater detail is appropriately imposed upon them. 15 Id. at 923. From these cases it is clear that if a claim is filed with the appropriate agency in a manner satisfying the two-prong test of Douglas, then the agency has been given sufficient notice and the presentment requirement of section 2675(a) has been satisfied. 16 This court in Knapp held that a claim similar to Conn's was sufficient in detail to enable a federal agency to make an independent investigation. Knapp, 844 F.2d at 380. See also Martinez v. United States, 728 F.2d 694, 696 (5th Cir.1984) (notice of the skeletal facts of the claim [is] sufficient to enable the agency to investigate); Williams v. United States, 693 F.2d 555, 557 (5th Cir.1982) (no particular form or manner of giving such notice is required as long as the agency is somehow informed of the fact of and amount of the claim); Surratt v. United States, 582 F.Supp. 692, 699 (N.D.Ill.1984) (The form apprised the agency of the place, date, and time of the incident, identified the claim as relating to medical malpractice and identified the VA personnel alleged to have knowledge of the incident.). 17 Although the Form 95 filed on behalf of Conn did not satisfy the regulation requiring documentation of the authority of the person filing on behalf of the claimant, this failure does not render the form an ineffective presentment for purposes of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2675(a). Accord Avila v. Immigration and Naturalization Serv., 731 F.2d 616 (9th Cir.1984) (holding that a claim filed by the claimant's father satisfied the section 2675(a) presentment requirement despite a lack of documentation of the father's authority to file on behalf of his son); Warren, 724 F.2d 776 (holding that presentment was sufficient despite the fact that the attorney who filed on behalf of the claimant failed to document his authority as required by the regulations); Graves v. United States Coast Guard, 692 F.2d 71 (9th Cir.1982) (holding that a claim filed by the claimant's attorney constituted sufficient presentment despite the lack of documentation of the attorney's authority). 18 In the present case, Conn clearly satisfied the second prong of the Douglas test. He placed a definite value on his claim. We also conclude that Conn satisfied the first prong of Douglas because he provided the Bureau of Prisons with written notice of his claim sufficient to enable it to investigate the claim. The Form 95 submitted by Salyer identified the nature of the claim, the underlying incident and the approximate date thereof, the parties involved, and the extent of the injury. The fact that documentation of Salyer's authority to file the claim on Conn's behalf was not also provided does not defeat the sufficiency of the notice provided by the filed claim. We therefore hold that the claim filed with the Bureau of Prisons on behalf of Conn satisfied the requirements of presentment for purposes of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2675(a) as outlined by this court in Douglas. 19