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Form 95. Standard Form 95 elicits all pertinent information that the government will require in order to begin investigating the claimant’s allegations. Of the information elicited by Standard Form 95, most critical to adhering to the notice requirement is that the government is provided with the identity of the claimant and the amount sought in recompense for the tort alleged. Te form is available at
http://www.justice.gov/civil/forms.htm.
dismissed for failing to provide all information requested by the government within the statutory deadline. In that case, a mother sought to sue the United States Postal Service (USPS) after her daughter was struck and run over by a postal employee during the course of the postal employee’s work for the postal service. Te attorney for the mother and child sent correspondence to the USPS advising the agency of the facts giving rise to the plaintiff ’s claim, and requesting information regarding the agency’s liability insurance. Id. at 659. Te correspondence, although timely, failed to state the specific amount of monetary damages that the plaintiff sought. Two years and nine months after the plaintiff ’s injury, plaintiff ’s counsel supplemented his initial correspondence with an itemized statement of plaintiff ’s medical expenses. Id. Te USPS denied plaintiff ’s claim. Id. Plaintiff then completed the claim form provided by the federal government, Standard Form 95, and requested that the USPS reconsider plaintiff ’s claim. Id. Te USPS denied the request for reconsideration, and Plaintiff filed suit in the United States District Court. Id. Te USPS moved to dismiss plaintiff ’s claim arguing
Te statute,
however, does not require that a claimant use Standard Form 95 in order to provide notice to the government. “Other written notification of an incident, accompanied by a claim for money damages in a sum certain for injury to or loss of property, personal injury, or death alleged to have occurred by reason of the incident,” is also an acceptable means by which to put the government on notice of one’s claim. 28 C.F.R. 14.2(a). Te danger in utilizing a form not prescribed by the
government is that key information may be missing from a claimant’s provision of notice which could bar a claimant from recovery under the FTCA. For instance, in Shipley v. U.S. Postal Service, 286 F. Supp. 2d 657 (M.D.N.C. 2003), despite notice to the federal agency, a plaintiff ’s suit was
22 Trial Reporter / Spring 2011
that the district court failed to acquire jurisdiction over the USPS as the agency had not received notice of Plaintiff ’s claim in the manner established by the FTCA. Specifically, USPS cited plaintiff ’s failure to state a sum certain in her claim notice as the gravitas of its defense. Id. at 659. Te United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina held that a “failure to request a sum certain within the statute of limitations deprives a district court of jurisdiction over any subsequently filed FTCA suit.” Id. at 661. Te court found that Plaintiff failed to comply with the statutory requirement of presenting a claim for a sum certain to the USPS within two years of the date that the plaintiff ’s claim accrued. Consequently, the court held that the plaintiff ’s claim against the USPS and the United States was time-barred and the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to proceed on the merits of the plaintiff ’s case. Id. After providing notice in the specified form and within the specified time limits of the statute, a claimant must file suit within six months after the date on which the federal agency has provided notice of the agency’s final denial of the claim. 28 U.S.C. 2401(b). A major pitfall exists in instances where a claimant has provided notice of a claim to a federal agency but has not received a response from the agency within six months of that notification. In such circumstances, a claimant should consider the agency’s lack of response to be a denial and must subsequently file suit within six months of the deemed denial date. Under 28 U.S.C. 2675(a), claimants are barred from filing suit against
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