Opinion ID: 186039
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sovereign Immunity and the Federal Tort Claims Act

Text: 14 Absent waiver, the doctrine of sovereign immunity shields the federal government from suit. FDIC v. Meyer, 510 U.S. 471, 475, 114 S.Ct. 996, 127 L.Ed.2d 308 (1994); see also United States v. Sherwood, 312 U.S. 584, 586, 61 S.Ct. 767, 85 L.Ed. 1058 (1941). Because sovereign immunity is jurisdictional in nature, Meyer, 510 U.S. at 475, 114 S.Ct. 996, the terms of [the government's] consent to be sued in any court define that court's jurisdiction to entertain the suit, Sherwood, 312 U.S. at 586, 61 S.Ct. 767. As the Supreme Court has often observed, waiver of sovereign immunity must be unequivocally expressed in the statutory text and strictly construed, in terms of its scope, in favor of the sovereign. Dep't of Army v. Blue Fox, Inc., 525 U.S. 255, 261, 119 S.Ct. 687, 142 L.Ed.2d 718 (1999) (internal quotations omitted). A party bringing suit against the United States bears the burden of proving that the government has unequivocally waived its immunity. See, e.g., Graham v. Fed. Emergency Mgmt. Agency, 149 F.3d 997, 1005 (9th Cir.1998); James v. United States, 970 F.2d 750, 753 (10th Cir.1992); Reynolds v. Army & Air Force Exch. Serv., 846 F.2d 746, 748 (Fed.Cir. 1988). 15 The FTCA represents a limited waiver of the government's sovereign immunity, United States v. Orleans, 425 U.S. 807, 813, 96 S.Ct. 1971, 48 L.Ed.2d 390 (1976), grant[ing] the federal district courts jurisdiction over a certain category of claims for which the United States has ... `render[ed]' itself liable, Meyer, 510 U.S. at 477, 114 S.Ct. 996 (quoting Richards v. United States, 369 U.S. 1, 6, 82 S.Ct. 585, 7 L.Ed.2d 492 (1962)). Specifically, section 1346(b)(1) of the FTCA confers exclusive jurisdiction to the district courts over 16 civil actions on claims against the United States, ... for money damages ... for injury or loss of property, or personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his office or employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred. 17 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b)(1). In Meyer the Supreme Court recognized that this language establishes six elements a claim must encompass to be actionable under section 1346(b)(1), namely, the claim must be 18 [1] against the United States, [2] for money damages, ... [3] for injury or loss of property, or personal injury or death [4] caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government [5] while acting within the scope of his office or employment, [6] under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred. 19 Meyer 510 U.S. at 477, 114 S.Ct. 996 (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b)). Tri-State's claim plainly satisfies four of the six elements (1, 2, 4, 5): it is against the United States (which is the named defendant), seeks $3,239,153.60 in damages, which were caused by the wrongful conduct (malicious prosecution and abuse of practice) of employees of the United States Justice Department and Commerce Department acting within the scope of their official enforcement duties. For the following reasons, we conclude that the claim also satisfies the third and sixth elements and therefore the district court possessed jurisdiction over the claim under section 1346(b). 20 First, the money damages sought — compensation for the roughly $3.2 million Tri-State expended defending itself in the prior proceedings may be properly characterized as damages for injury or loss of property within the meaning of the third statutory element of section 1346(b)(1) — whether they be considered as damages for injury — actionable injury other than personal injury (here, for example, being subjected to indictment, trial, penalties, etc. 4 ) — or viewed as damages for loss of property (that is, of the funds necessarily expended to defend against the wrongful legal proceedings). In fact, expenditures for legal defense traditionally make up a major component of the damages recoverable for malicious prosecution and abuse of process. See Restatement (Second) of Torts, §§ 671(b) (damages for unjustifiable criminal litigation), 681(c) (damages for unjustifiable civil litigation for abuse of process); W. Page Keaton et al., Prosser and Keeton on Torts, §§ 119, at 888 (criminal malicious prosecution damages); 120, at 895 (civil malicious prosecution damages) (5th ed.1984). It is therefore unlikely that the Congress intended to foreclose such damages in actions against the government under the FTCA which expressly authorizes actions for malicious prosecution and abuse of process. See 28 U.S.C. § 2680(h) (provisions of ... section 1346(b) of this title shall apply to any claim arising, on or after the date of the enactment of this proviso, out of assault, battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, abuse of process, or malicious prosecution ) (emphasis added); see also Smith v. United States, 507 U.S. 197, 203, 113 S.Ct. 1178, 122 L.Ed.2d 548 (1993) (We should also have in mind that the [FTCA] waives the immunity of the United States and that ... we should not take it upon ourselves to extend the waiver beyond that which Congress intended. Neither, however, should we assume the authority to narrow the waiver that Congress intended.) (quoting United States v. Kubrick, 444 U.S. 111, 117-118, 100 S.Ct. 352, 62 L.Ed.2d 259 (1979)). When the Congress wished to except a class of damages from the FTC, it had no difficulty doing so specifically and unambiguously. See 28 U.S.C. § 2674 (excepting government liability for pre-judgment interest or punitive damages) (discussed infra p. 578). 21 Even if an FTCA claim satisfies section 1346(b)(1)'s third requirement it may yet fail the sixth requirement and jurisdiction be therefore lacking. The section's sixth element requires that the alleged wrong have been done under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred. In Meyer, the Supreme Court made clear that [section] 1346(b)'s reference to the `law of the place' means law of the State — the source of substantive liability under the FTCA. Meyer, 510 U.S. at 478, 114 S.Ct. 996. Thus, under the sixth element, state law establishes the elements of a particular tort that is otherwise actionable under the FTCA. While the choice of law issue is not before us, we note that the District of Columbia is not alone in allowing attorney's fees to be recovered as damages in a malicious prosecution suit. Our examination of state tort law reveals that many states permit the recovery of attorney's fees qua damages in malicious prosecution suits — and, to our knowledge, not a single state forbids the practice. 5 Assuming, then, without deciding, that District of Columbia tort law applies in this case, Tri-State will be able to seek such damages here. 22 To be sure, several appellate courts have held that attorney's fees are not recoverable under the FTCA. See, e.g., Anderson v. United States, 127 F.3d 1190, 1191-92 (9th Cir.1997) (Congress has not waived the government's sovereign immunity for attorney['s] fees and expenses under the FTCA.), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1072, 118 S.Ct. 1512, 140 L.Ed.2d 666 (1998); Joe v. United States, 772 F.2d 1535, 1537 (11th Cir.1985) (The FTCA does not contain the express waiver of sovereign immunity necessary to permit a court to award attorney['s] fees against the United States directly under that act.). However, Tri-State is not seeking the attorney's fees it incurred in bringing its FTCA action but rather damages in the form of attorney's fees already expended in defending itself against the underlying tortious conduct. Br. for Appellant at 33. Because Anderson, Joe and similar cases stand only for the proposition that a prevailing party may not recover the attorney's fees incurred in prosecuting an FTCA action, they provide no basis for denying Tri-State recovery of its damages — simply measured in the form of attorney's fees — here. Anderson, 127 F.3d at 1191-92; Joe, 772 F.2d at 1536-37. 23 Moreover, as Tri-State correctly observes, a pat reliance upon cases such as Anderson and Joe effectively reads a damage-specific waiver requirement into the FTCA; i.e., absent the express waiver of a specific category of damages — for example, pain and suffering — that category of damages may not be recovered under the FTCA. In our view, at least two rationales counsel against such a reading. First, the FTCA expressly precludes the recovery of prejudgment interest and punitive damages only. 28 U.S.C. § 2674. The inclusion of this provision suggests that other categories of damages should not be precluded. See, e.g., Qi-Zhuo v. Meissner, 70 F.3d 136, 139 (D.C.Cir.1995) ([A]n item which is omitted from a list of exclusions is presumed not to be excluded.); Detweiler v. Pena, 38 F.3d 591, 594 (D.C.Cir.1994) (Where a statute contains explicit exceptions, the courts are reluctant to find other implicit exceptions.). Second, given the absence of any damage-specific waiver in the FTCA itself, reading such a requirement into the statute could preclude the recovery of any category of damages, including pain and suffering, lost wages and medical expenses. By adhering to the ordinary meaning of section 1346(b)(1), however, we avoid such an illogical result. See United States v. Wilson, 290 F.3d 347, 361 (D.C.Cir.) (`absurd results' are strongly disfavored in construing statute (quoting Griffin v. Oceanic Contractors, Inc., 458 U.S. 564, 575, 102 S.Ct. 3245, 73 L.Ed.2d 973 (1982))), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1028, 123 S.Ct. 581, 154 L.Ed.2d 442 (2002). 6 24 We note that the government finds some support for its position in a series of Ninth Circuit decisions holding that the FTCA does not confer subject matter jurisdiction upon the district court for claims seeking expenses incurred by states in fighting forest fires negligently set in federally-controlled forests. See Idaho ex rel. Trombley v. Dep't of Army Corps of Engineers, 666 F.2d 444 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 823, 103 S.Ct. 53, 74 L.Ed.2d 58 (1982); California v. United States, 307 F.2d 941 (9th Cir.1962), cert. denied, 372 U.S. 941, 83 S.Ct. 933, 9 L.Ed.2d 967 (1963); Oregon v. United States, 308 F.2d 568 (9th Cir.1962), cert. denied, 372 U.S. 941, 83 S.Ct. 934, 9 L.Ed.2d 967 (1963). Such expenses, the Ninth Circuit reasoned, simply do not constitute `money damages' `for injury or loss of property' under the FTCA. Idaho, 666 F.2d at 446. Because it concluded that the state-plaintiffs had sought the recovery of firefighting expenses and not damages to person or property, the Ninth Circuit thrice held that section 1346(b)(1) does not confer jurisdiction upon the district court to hear such claims. See id. at 446; see also California, 307 F.2d at 944; Oregon, 308 F.2d at 569. 7 25 Tri-State attempts to distinguish the Ninth Circuit's firefighting expenses decisions on two distinct bases. First, Tri-State argues that the Ninth Circuit's decisions are inapposite because, unlike the state-plaintiffs in Idaho, California and Oregon, it has alleged the commission of intentional torts — abuse of process and malicious prosecution — rather than negligence. This argument fails to withstand close scrutiny, however, as none of the Ninth Circuit's decisions appears to turn on the nature of the cause of action alleged. See Idaho, 666 F.2d at 446; California, 307 F.2d at 943-44; Oregon, 308 F.2d at 569. 26 Citing New York v. United States, 620 F.Supp. 374 (E.D.N.Y.1985), Tri-State next argues that the Ninth Circuit decisions are inapplicable because, unlike the state-plaintiffs in Idaho, California and Oregon, it has in fact alleged injury to property. This argument has some appeal. In New York v. United States, the district court held that the Ninth Circuit's firefighting expenses cases did not control New York's claim for money damages under the FTCA for the costs it incurred in removing jet fuel contaminants from a former U.S. Air Force base. Id. at 375-79. Rejecting the government's argument that the state's damages claim was really an equitable restitution claim seeking compensation for the alleged costs of cleaning up the polluted areas, the district court agreed with New York that the cost of removing the contaminants is simply the suggested measure of damages to its property. Id. at 378. Similarly, Tri-State argues here that the attorney's fees it incurred defending itself represent `the measure' of the damage to its property, i.e., its financial assets. Reply Br. at 12. Although the New York decision arguably involved a more conventional loss of property — groundwater underlying the former Air Force base was contaminated — Tri-State's argument carries a certain degree of force. New York, 620 F.Supp. at 375. 27 To the extent that the Ninth Circuit's firefighting expenses decisions require a physical injury to recover money damages under the FTCA, we decline to follow them. No such requirement appears on the face of section 1346(b)(1) and we decline to engraft one. We thus conclude that Tri-State has adequately stated a claim for money damages ... for injury or loss of property within section 1346(b)(1) to the extent that the state law governing Tri-State's tort claims allows the recovery of attorney's fees qua damages for abuse of process and malicious prosecution. 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b)(1).