Court Opinion

ID: 9453323
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:09:46.880916+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:36.402840
License: Public Domain

NICHOLS, Judge
(dissenting):
I join in Judge Skelton’s dissent. I would like to add, I think this and all other courts should approach statutory and contractual provisions, purporting to cut off persons’ legal rights or remedies for failure to take merely formal steps, in cases of insubstantial untimeliness, on the basis that the interpretation least favorable to such cut off should be the one most acceptable. I would not conjure up an ambiguity when none really existed, but when so strong a case can be made against the cut off as Judge Skelton makes here, I would not blind myself to the existence of ambiguity. Where amguity existed, I would see clear light as to how it should be resolved. Cf. Charlson Realty Co. v. United States, 384 F.2d 434, 181 Ct.Cl.- (1967).