Opinion ID: 1467307
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Hensleys' Claim Accrued at the Time of the Car Accident.

Text: The FTCA waives sovereign immunity for claims against the federal government arising from torts committed by federal employees who are acting within the scope of their employment. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b)(1), 2679(d)(1). But the statute provides that a tort claim shall be forever barred unless it is presented within two years after such claim accrues. Id. § 2401(b). As a general rule, a claim accrues when a plaintiff knows or has reason to know of the injury which is the basis of his action. Gibson v. United States, 781 F.2d 1334, 1344 (9th Cir.1986) (internal quotation marks omitted). In addition, as a general rule, ignorance of the involvement of government employees is irrelevant to accrual of a federal tort claim. Dyniewicz v. United States, 742 F.2d 484, 487 (9th Cir.1984). In certain circumstances, such as claims involving medical malpractice, accrual does not occur until a plaintiff knows of both the existence of an injury and its cause. United States v. Kubrick, 444 U.S. 111, 122-23, 100 S.Ct. 352, 62 L.Ed.2d 259 (1979). But accrual does not await a plaintiff's awareness, whether actual or constructive, of the government's negligence. Id. at 125, 100 S.Ct. 352. As the Court explained: A plaintiff ..., armed with the facts about the harm done to him, can protect himself by seeking advice in the medical and legal community. To excuse him from promptly doing so by postponing the accrual of his claim would undermine the purpose of the limitations statute, which is to require the reasonably diligent presentation of tort claims against the Government. Id. at 123, 100 S.Ct. 352. In Gibson, we expressly refused to expand the Supreme Court's holding in Kubrick to delay accrual of a federal tort claim until plaintiff knows or has reason to know of the culpability of federal agents. 781 F.2d at 1344. There, the plaintiffs alleged that government agents were responsible for burning down their garage. They argued that their claim did not accrue for the purpose of the statute of limitations until more than three years after the fire, when they finally learned of the government's alleged complicity in the arson. Id. at 1343-44. Although we recognized that the plaintiffs could find some support in the [l]anguage in Kubrick [] emphasizing the strategic importance to the litigant of knowing whom to sue, Dyniewicz required us to hold that the claim accrued when the plaintiffs learned of the property damage itself. Id. at 1344. Dyniewicz, on which we relied in Gibson, is factually similar to the present case. The plaintiffs filed a wrongful death claim against the State of Hawaii for the deaths of a husband and wife who had died in a flood. Dyniewicz, 742 F.2d at 485. While that timely state court action was ongoing, but approximately two years and three months after the deaths, the plaintiffs learned that National Park Service rangers might have played a part in causing the deaths. Id. The plaintiffs promptly filed an administrative claim, asserting a cause of action under the FTCA. We held that the claim was time-barred because it was not submitted within two years of the date of its accrual. Id. at 486. We reiterated the rule that the claim accrued when the plaintiffs knew both the fact of injury and its immediate physical cause. Id. at 487. The plaintiffs' ignorance of the involvement of United States employees is irrelevant to determining when their claim accrues. Id.; accord Gould v. U.S. Dep't of Health & Human Servs., 905 F.2d 738, 743 n. 2, 745 (4th Cir.1990) (en banc) (discussing Dyniewicz and holding that the FTCA statute of limitations does not wait until a plaintiff is aware that an alleged tort-feasor is a federal employee); Zeleznik v. United States, 770 F.2d 20, 23 (3rd Cir. 1985) (following Dyniewicz and holding that accrual of an FTCA claim is not delayed until the injured party learns of possible government liability); Steele v. United States, 599 F.2d 823, 827-28 (7th Cir.1979) (holding that the plaintiff's assertion that he neither knew, nor in the exercise of reasonable diligence could have known about the government's possible liability for his injury was irrelevant to accrual of his FTCA claim). Moreover, we held that even the government's silence concerning the possible negligence of the rangers did not toll the statute of limitations in the absence of fraudulent concealment. Dyniewicz, 742 F.2d at 487; see also Davis v. United States, 642 F.2d 328, 331 (9th Cir.1981) (In the absence of fraudulent concealment it is plaintiff's burden, within the statutory period, to determine whether and whom to sue.). At the moment Eich struck Mrs. Hensley's car with his own, the Hensleys knew both the fact of the injury and its immediate physical cause. Dyniewicz, 742 F.2d at 487. The fact that Mrs. Hensley suffered an injury was immediately apparent; the cause (a collision) was immediately apparent; and even the identity of the person who inflicted the injury (Eich) was immediately apparent. Therefore, the Hensleys' claim accrued at the time of the accident. That being so, their suit was untimely under 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b) because it was filed more than two years later. In the absence of an equitable remedy, the district court lacked jurisdiction. The relevant precedents provide no support for the district court's compassionate holding that accrual of the Hensleys' claim awaited the moment when they knew or should have known that Eich was acting within the scope of his federal employment. See Dyniewicz, 742 F.2d at 487 ([I]gnorance of the involvement of United States employees is irrelevant.). As the Supreme Court emphasized in Kubrick, 444 U.S. at 123, 100 S.Ct. 352, armed as they were with the available facts, the Hensleys could have protected their FTCA claim by seeking legal advice sooner.