Opinion ID: 474490
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Repeal of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2411(b)

Text: 59 Appellants' final argument on appeal hinges on the repeal of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2411(b). Before Congress passed the Federal Courts Improvement Act, section 2411(b) provided for the award of post-judgment interest against the United States in all actions, except tax actions, instituted under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1346. This meant liability for post-judgment interest primarily in FTCA cases and Little Tucker Act cases. According to the appellants, the repeal of this provision simultaneously with the amendment of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1961 suggests that Congress intended section 1961(a) as amended to include the award of post-judgment interest on FTCA and Tucker Act judgments against the federal government. Appellants invoke the presumption against implied repeal of remedial provisions and argue that it is extremely unlikely that Congress intended to furtively eliminate the right to receive post-judgment interest on FTCA and Tucker Act judgments, where such interest had been available for years. According to appellants, unless the general language of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1961(a) extends to judgments against the United States under the Tucker Act and the FTCA, which it could only do if it applied to all judgments against the United States in district court, the Federal Courts Improvement Act secretly effected an anomalous retrenchment on the availability of post-judgment interest awards against the United States. 60 Library of Congress v. Shaw forecloses this argument. We need not today decide the extent, if any, to which the Federal Courts Improvement Act curtails previously available post-judgment interest on judgments against the United States under the FTCA and the Tucker Act. 7 Even if Congress did not intend to eliminate the liability of the United States for post-judgment interest in FTCA and Tucker Act cases, this does not mean that Congress affirmatively contemplated an expansion of the liability of the United States for post-judgment interest. The waiver of immunity for an award of interest must be affirmatively and separately contemplated by Congress. See Library of Congress v. Shaw, --- U.S. at ----, 106 S.Ct. at 2961. Appellants' argument, however, rests on a waiver by implication and must therefore be rejected. 8