United States v. Kwai Fun Wong
Headline: Federal Tort Claims Act filing deadlines are not absolute: the Court allowed equitable tolling, letting people who missed agency or court deadlines seek forgiveness so their claims can be heard.
Holding: Section 2401(b)’s two‑year and six‑month filing limits are nonjurisdictional and may be equitably tolled, so courts can forgive late FTCA filings when fairness and the case’s facts justify it.
- Allows courts to forgive late FTCA claims in appropriate cases.
- Enables people who missed two‑year or six‑month deadlines to seek court relief.
- Resolves circuit split and affects federal tort suits against the Government nationwide.
Summary
Background
Two people sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) after harm they say the Government caused. Kwai Fun Wong claimed false imprisonment by immigration officials and tried to add her FTCA claim to an existing federal case after an agency denial. Marlene June, as conservator for a child, alleged a deadly highway design defect and presented a late FTCA claim to the Federal Highway Administration. Both missed one of §2401(b)’s time limits — the FTCA rule that requires claims to be presented within two years to an agency and, after denial, brought to court within six months. Lower courts split about whether those limits could be forgiven in fairness.
Reasoning
The Court framed the key question in plain terms: are those FTCA deadlines jurisdictional limits that courts cannot excuse, or are they ordinary filing deadlines that a court may equitably toll (forgive) in some cases? Relying on Irwin’s presumption that time rules in suits against the Government are tollable unless Congress clearly says otherwise, the majority found no clear Congressional statement making §2401(b) a jurisdictional bar. The text speaks to timeliness rather than court power, the FTCA’s jurisdictional grant appears elsewhere in Title 28, and the legislative history does not plainly require a jurisdictional reading. The Court rejected the Government’s arguments based on old phrasing like “shall be forever barred” and on analogies to an older statute (the Tucker Act).
Real world impact
The ruling means federal courts may equitably toll both FTCA deadlines in appropriate cases. People who missed the two‑year agency deadline or the six‑month court deadline can ask a judge to forgive the delay where fairness and the facts justify it. The decision resolves a split among appeals courts and sends both cases back to lower courts to decide whether tolling applies in the particular facts.
Dissents or concurrances
A dissent argued the opposite: that historical practice and prior precedent treated such FTCA time limits as jurisdictional and absolute, so courts should not forgive late FTCA claims.
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