Opinion ID: 784472
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The FTCA's Misrepresentation Exception

Text: 64 The government argues that Plaintiff's claim is barred by the FTCA's misrepresentation exception, which excludes [a]ny claim arising out of ... misrepresentation. 28 U.S.C. 2680(h); see also Neustadt, 366 U.S. at 705, 81 S.Ct. 1294 (both negligent and intentional misrepresentation claims are barred). We agree with the district court's conclusion (expressed in its first opinion in this case) that this exception does not apply. 24 65 The government's reasoning was rejected persuasively by the Fifth Circuit in Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Atkins, 225 F.3d 510 (5th Cir.2000), the facts of which are strikingly similar to those of our case. In Atkins, the plaintiffs (the mother and sister of the deceased insured) alleged that a federal personnel clerk negligently failed to secure and retain a signed copy of a FEGLIA Designation of Beneficiary form, thus preventing the plaintiffs from becoming proper beneficiaries. The Fifth Circuit stated that the appropriate inquiry was whether the focal point of the plaintiffs' claim was (1) negligence in the communication of (or the failure to communicate) information or (2) negligence in the performance of an operational task, with misrepresentation being merely collateral to such performance. See id. at 512. We conclude that, as in Atkins, the focal point of Plaintiff's claim is that the postal employees failed to forward the Designation of Beneficiary form to the Office of Personnel Management, an operational task. See also Block, 460 U.S. at 297-98, 103 S.Ct. 1089 (holding that the plaintiff's Good Samaritan claim that defects in a house were partly attributable to the Farmers Home Administration's failure to inspect the house properly during construction did not fall within the misrepresentation exception, even though a different negligence theory focusing on the plaintiff's reliance on the Administration's inspection reports might have fallen within that exception). Accordingly, Plaintiff's claim is not barred by the misrepresentation exception.