State of Maryland v. United States
Decision Date | 30 December 1947 |
Docket Number | No. 5633.,5633. |
Citation | 165 F.2d 869 |
Parties | STATE OF MARYLAND, to Use of BURKHARDT, v. UNITED STATES. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
T. Hughlett Henry, Jr., of Easton, Md. (J. Martin McDonough, of Baltimore, Md., on the brief), for appellant.
Whiteford S. Blakeney, of Charlotte, N. C., as amicus curiae.
James B. Murphy, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Baltimore, Md. (Bernard J. Flynn, U. S. Atty., of Baltimore, Md., on the brief), for appellee.
Before PARKER, SOPER and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal by plaintiff from an order dismissing an action to recover damages on account of wrongful death instituted under the Federal Tort Claims Act, Title IV, Public Law 601, Aug. 2, 1946, 60 Stat. 843, 28 U.S.C.A. § 921 et seq. The action was brought for the benefit of the widow of one George N. F. Burkhardt, who was killed on September 2, 1945, when the automobile in which he was riding was in collision with a truck of the United States Army. The action was instituted December 5, 1946, and was dismissed by the learned judge below because not brought within one year as required by the wrongful death statute of Maryland. Annotated Code of Maryland (1939 Ed.) c. 67. The contention of plaintiff is that the action may be maintained because instituted within twelve months of the enactment of the Tort Claims Act, which was ratified August 2, 1946. The pertinent provisions of that statute are sec. 410(a), 28 U.S.C.A. § 931(a), and sec. 420, 28 U.S.C.A. § 942, which are as follows:
Under the law of Maryland, the limitation of twelve months prescribed in the wrongful death statute is held a condition precedent to the right to maintain an action thereunder (Stasciewicz v. Parks, 148 Md. 477, 483, 129 A. 793); and the contention of defendant is that since the action could not be maintained against a private person because not instituted within the twelve month period prescribed by the Maryland statute, it cannot be maintained under the Tort Claims Act, even though instituted within the period of limitations prescribed by that act. We think, however, that the purpose and effect of the language of the statute is that we shall look to the law of the state for the purpose of defining the actionable wrong for which liability shall exist on the part of the United States, but to the act itself for the limitations of time within which action shall be instituted to enforce the liability. The language of the act, its reason and spirit, its history and the effect and consequences of a different interpretation, all negative the suggestion that the limitations of the state law in addition to those prescribed in the act operate to bar recovery thereunder.
If we look to the language of the act, we find that the pertinent portion of the language contained in sec. 410(a) is the following: (Italics supplied.) This language clearly means that the standards and tests of local law are to determine whether a negligent or wrongful act has been established which is actionable and the nature and extent of the recovery permitted on account thereof, not the period of limitation within which the action must be instituted. The latter is prescribed by sec. 420, quoted above. The words "under circumstances", twice used in defining liability in sec. 410(a), are not apt words to encompass the passage of time or to suggest a period of limitations. "Circumstances are facts or things standing around or about some central fact." Salter v. State, 163 Ga. 80, 135 S. E. 408, 409. "'Circumstances' determining whether `negligence,' defined as want of care under circumstances, exists, embraces all attendant facts, including operation of forces of nature relating to central event". Pope v. Reading Co., 304 Pa. 326, 156 A. 106, 109. See also Graff v. Scott Bros., 315 Pa. 362, 172 A. 659, 661.
If the reason and spirit of the statute be considered, there is even less reason to think that it could have been intended to adopt state statutes of limitations as a bar to recovery. Congress was creating a liability not theretofore existing on the part of the government. To have defined all of the tort rules under which liability could be established would have been an almost impossible undertaking; but standards of liability were necessary and Congress was compelled, as a practical matter, to adopt the principles and standards of local law in defining them. The matter of limitations, however, was a simple one which Congress could easily determine for itself; and the fact that the one year limitation was prescribed in the act and was to run from the enactment of the statute if that was later than the accrual of the cause of action, so that the plaintiff should have at least a year to sue, is inconsistent with any idea that the period was to be shortened because a shorter period was provided by state law.
It should be noted, also, that the purpose of the legislation was to eliminate private bills, which had consumed so much of the time of Congress; and it is hardly consistent with such a purpose to eliminate from the coverage of the act claims not barred by the limitations therein provided but barred by state limitations with the result that such claims would have to be handled by private bills. In this connection, sec. 131 of the act provides: 60 Stat. 831.
The history of the legislation likewise negatives any intention that state limitations should bar recovery in such cases. Section 131 as passed by the Senate, there numbered 121, contained a provision that the section should not apply to any private bill or resolution conferring jurisdiction upon the federal courts to pass upon a private claim otherwise cognizable under the act, if it had accrued between January 1, 1939, and December 31, 1944. Mr. LaFollette of the Senate Special Committee on Organization of Congress submitted a report with regard thereto which contains the following statements:
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