Opinion ID: 500120
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: waiver of feres immunity

Text: 8 Stauber argues that the district court erred in considering Feres immunity because defendants failed to raise the issue as an affirmative defense. The district court adopted defendants' position that the immunity could not be waived because it is an issue of subject matter jurisdiction. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(h)(3); see Jablonski by Pahls v. United States, 712 F.2d 391, 394-95 (9th Cir.1983); Beers v. Southern Pac. Transp. Co., 703 F.2d 425, 429 (9th Cir.1983). We review de novo the district court's decision to consider appellees' late claim of intramilitary immunity. E.g., United States v. McConney, 728 F.2d 1195, 1201 (9th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 824, 105 S.Ct. 101, 83 L.Ed.2d 46 (1984). 9 In Feres v. United States, the Supreme Court held that members of the armed services could not sue the government for injuries that arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service. 340 U.S. at 146, 71 S.Ct. at 159, quoted in United States v. Johnson, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 2063, 2066, 95 L.Ed.2d 648 (1987). The Court grounded its ruling on the fact that relations between the government and its military personnel were distinctively federal in character, exclusively governed by federal law, and that a comprehensive, even-handed government compensation scheme was available for service-connected injuries. Feres, 340 U.S. at 143-45, 71 S.Ct. at 158-59. Later Supreme Court decisions emphasized the effect that private lawsuits might have on military discipline. See, e.g., United States v. Shearer, 473 U.S. 52, 57, 105 S.Ct. 3039, 3043, 87 L.Ed.2d 38 (1985); Stencel Aero Eng'g Corp. v. United States, 431 U.S. 666, 671-72, 97 S.Ct. 2054, 2057-58, 52 L.Ed.2d 665 (1977). 10 In cases arising under the Federal Tort Claims Act, we have viewed the Feres doctrine as a limitation on the jurisdiction of the courts. Atkinson v. United States, 825 F.2d 202 (9th Cir.1987); Millang v. United States, 817 F.2d 533, 534-35 (9th Cir.1987); Bon v. United States, 802 F.2d 1092, 1094 (9th Cir.1986); Broudy v. United States, 661 F.2d 125, 128 n. 5 (9th Cir.1981); Monaco v. United States, 661 F.2d 129, 131 (9th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 989, 102 S.Ct. 2269, 73 L.Ed.2d 1284 (1982). Although Feres itself did not compel dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, such a result comports with the development of the doctrine, which has grown as a judgemade exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act's (FTCA's) waiver of sovereign immunity. 5 11 In contrast to Atkinson, Millang, Bon, Broudy, and Monaco, Stauber's action does not depend on any waiver of the sovereign immunity of the United States to establish jurisdiction. He brought his action in state court against the individual defendants, and federal jurisdiction was acquired by removal. Although Stauber makes no point of this distinction, it has a potential effect on the jurisdictional question. When Feres is applied as an exception to Congress's waiver of sovereign immunity in the Federal Tort Claims Act, it is an easy step to say that the exception takes the case out of the waiver, and that the federal court has no jurisdiction to entertain a suit against the sovereign. That analysis cannot apply here, because no action against the sovereign is before us. 12 Nevertheless, we conclude that the Feres doctrine, in light of the reasoning underlying it, occupies a position comparable to a restriction on subject matter jurisdiction, so that the district court was correct to apply the doctrine despite its untimely invocation. As we will more fully explain in dealing with the district court's ruling on the merits of the Feres issue, the Feres doctrine has come to rest at least in significant part on the view that the judiciary ought not to intrude in military affairs. 6 Thus the Feres rule has been interpreted as necessary to avoid the courts' second-guessing military decisions, or impairing military discipline. Shearer, 473 U.S. at 57, 105 S.Ct. at 3043; see Chappell v. Wallace, 462 U.S. 296, 304, 103 S.Ct. 2362, 2367, 76 L.Ed.2d 586 (1983). Indeed, courts have even been viewed as  'ill-equipped to determine the impact upon discipline that any particular intrusion upon military authority might have.'  Chappell, 462 U.S. at 305, 103 S.Ct. at 2368 (quoting Warren, The Bill of Rights and the Military, 37 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 181, 187 (1962)). 13 Thus the Feres doctrine, as presently interpreted, has far more to do with the proper relation between the courts, Congress and the military than it has to do with individual defendants. It is not a matter of personal immunity of the military personnel who may be defendants in a Bivens-type action incident to military services. United States v. Stanley, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 3054, 3064, 97 L.Ed.2d 550 (1987). It is a judicial doctrine leaving matters incident to service to the military, in the absence of congressional direction to the contrary. For these reasons, we conclude that the district court was correct in holding that the Feres defense was not waived when defendants failed to raise it until after trial. The doctrine is tantamount to a limitation of subject matter jurisdiction. 14