Court Opinion

ID: 9482955
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:06:13.568719+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:19.133844
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
In my view, we need not resolve in this appeal the difficult issue of whether a Federal Tort Claims Act suit must be refiled when the administrative claim is denied before any substantial progress has been made in the pending litigation. That issue has divided the courts of appeals and certainly deserves resolution by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Court took note of the issue in 1979 but explicitly declined to resolve it. See United States v. Kubrick, 444 U.S. 111, 115 n. 4, 100 S.Ct. 352, 356 n. 4, 62 L.Ed.2d 259 (1979).
Here, it is clear that the plaintiff, a prisoner proceeding pro se, attempted to refile the action after the denial of the administrative claim. On August 7, 1989, he wrote to the district court. His letter sets forth the gravamen of his complaint against the Public Health Service, asks the court to accept “this letter as a proper request, whereas plaintiff can properly commence his legal action accordingly.” (Emphasis supplied). Under the circuit’s holding in Pearson v. Gatto, 933 F.2d 521, 526-27 (7th Cir.1991), this letter serves as an adequate complaint.1
ORDER
Plaintiff-Appellant filed a petition for rehearing and suggestion of rehearing en banc on May 28,1992. No judge in regular active service has requested a vote on the suggestion of rehearing en banc, and all of the judges on the panel have voted to deny rehearing. The petition for rehearing is therefore DENIED. Judge Flaum did not participate in the consideration or decision of this case.

. I respectfully differ with my colleagues as to whether Mr. McNeil raised this issue adequately *650in this court. See Appellant’s Br. at 7. The government shares my view. See Supplemental Government Br. at 4. Nor, given the standards of pleading to which we hold incarcerated pro se litigants, do I believe that the characterization of the document as a complaint was "waived” in the district court. Mr. McNeil made one point clear to the district court in August 1989: despite the difficulties of filing papers with the court from Stateville Correctional Center, he was attempting to "commence his legal action."