Zatuchni v. Secretary of Health and Human Services

• Decision Date: 12 February 2008
• Docket Number: No. 2007-5034.,2007-5034.
• Citation: 516 F.3d 1312
• Parties: Dory ZATUCHNI, Executrix of the Estate of E. Barbara Snyder, deceased, Petitioner-Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, Respondent-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

516 F.3d 1312

Dory ZATUCHNI, Executrix of the Estate of E. Barbara Snyder, deceased, Petitioner-Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, Respondent-Appellant.

No. 2007-5034.

United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit.

February 12, 2008.

Kevin P. Conway, Conway, Homer & Chin-Caplan, P.C., of Boston, Massachusetts, argued for petitioner-appellee. On the brief was Ronald C. Homer.

Glenn A. MacLeod, Senior Trial Counsel, Torts Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, of Washington, DC, argued for respondent-appellant. With him on the brief were Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General, Timothy P. Garren, Director, Mark W. Rogers, Deputy Director, and Gabrielle M. Fielding, Assistant Director.

Before DYK, MOORE, Circuit Judges, and COTE, District Judge.^*

Opinion for the court filed by District Judge COTE. Opinion concurring in the result and dissenting from the majority filed by Circuit Judge DYK.

COTE, District Judge.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services ("government") appeals the judgment of the Court of Federal Claims awarding petitioner-appellee Dory Zatuchni ("Zatuchni") (in her capacity as executrix of the estate of E. Barbara Snyder ("Snyder")) $804,323.90 under the National Vaccine Compensation Program ("Program"). Zatuchni v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., 73 Fed.Cl. 451 (2006). The government concedes that $250,000 was properly awarded as a death benefit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15(a)(2), but asserts that the remaining $554,323.90, representing compensation pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15(a)(1), (3), and (4) for vaccine-related injuries suffered by Snyder prior to her death, may not be awarded because the death benefit is the sole remedy for a petitioner who dies as a result of the administration of a vaccine. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

Snyder received a measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine on February 10, 1992, at the age of 45. The Court of Federal Claims summarized the events that followed her vaccination:

Within two weeks of the vaccination, Ms. Snyder developed ... a rash, swollen lymph nodes, a fever, and severe pain throughout her joints and muscles. Soon thereafter, Ms. Snyder experienced other symptoms, which her physicians diagnosed as continuing chronic arthralgia and [fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS)] attributable to the rubella portion of the MMR vaccination.¹ Over the next 13 years, Ms. Snyder's physical condition deteriorated rapidly and significantly [She] found it impossible to continue working ... [e]ventually[ ] ... ambulated only with a walker, [and] required a nurse's aid to assist her with daily living functions.

Zatuchni v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., 73 Fed.Cl. 451, 452-53 (2006).

On January 31, 1994, Snyder filed a petition for compensation with the Program. As detailed in Snyder v. Secretary of Health & Human Services, No. 94-58V, 2005 WL 1230787, at *3-*5 (Fed.Cl. Spec.Mstr. May 6, 2005), the government conceded on May 2, 1994, that Snyder's chronic joint pain was caused by the MMR vaccination; Snyder, however, also sought compensation for her other symptoms, and obtained several stays of her petition in order to gather expert testimony in support of her claims and to pursue settlement discussions with the government.² As a result of these delays, Snyder's, petition remained pending before the special master until May 6, 2005, when her petition was denied for failure to demonstrate that the MMR vaccination caused her symptoms. Id. at *20.

Neither party was aware, however, that Snyder had died on April 28, 2005, several days before the special master's decision. Following the resolution of a brief procedural challenge pursuant to Rule 25(a)(1) of the Rules of the. Court of Federal Claims ("RCFC"), Zatuchni was substituted as a party for Snyder and appealed the special master's determination. Snyder v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., 69 Fed. Cl. 390 (2006).

On February 9, 2006, the Court of Federal Claims reversed the special master's determination, concluding that Snyder had met her burden to demonstrate that her symptoms were caused by the vaccine. The court remanded the case to the special master to determine the amount of compensation to which her estate was entitled and whether Snyder's death was vaccine-related. Zatuchni v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., 69 Fed.Cl. 612, 622-24 (2006).

The special master issued a decision on remand on May 10, 2006, concluding that Snyder's death had been vaccine-related, and that her estate was therefore entitled to the $250,000 death benefit provided for under 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15(a)(2). Zatuchni Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., No. 94-58V, 2006 WL 1499982, at *6 (Fed. Cl. May 10, 2006). The special master also found that Snyder would have been entitled to compensation in the amount of $554,323.90 for her vaccine-related injuries during her lifetime, including actual expenses incurred, pain and suffering, and lost income between the time of the vaccination and her death. Id. at *7-*8. The special master concluded that as a matter of law, however, such compensation could not be paid to her estate because her vaccine-related injury claims did not survive her death. Id. at *9-26. Accordingly, the special master awarded appellant $250,000.

On appeal, the Court of Federal Claims reversed the special master's determination as to the claim for pre-death veaccine-related injury compensation. Zatuchni v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., 73 Fed. Cl. 451, 459 (2006). It concluded that Snyder's injury claims did not abate upon her death, and accordingly awarded her estate $804,323.90, consisting of the $250,000 death benefit and compensation for injuries during her lifetime in the amount of $554,323.90. Id. The government appeals the award of the latter amount. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-12(f).

DISCUSSION

The instant appeal requires us to determine whether the petitioner may receive the compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering provided for under 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15(a)(1), (3) and (4), in addition to the $250,000 death benefit provided for under § 300aa-15(a)(2). The opinion below held that such compensation may be awarded; the government contends on appeal that such compensation may not be awarded because the death benefit is the sole remedy for a petitioner who dies as a result of the administration of a vaccine, and that claims for compensation under § 300aa-15(1), (3), and (4) do not survive the death of a vaccine-injured person under any circumstances.

The question of whether compensation under these subsections may be paid to the petitioner's estate following her vaccine-related death presents a question of statutory interpretation, and requires an analysis of the text and structure of the applicable statute. Cf. Seymour v. Principi, 245 F.3d 1377, 1379 (Fed.Cir.2001) (addressing the survivability of claims for veteran's benefits under 38 U.S.C. § 1151); Richard v. West, 161 F.3d 719, 722 (Fed. Cir.1998) ("[Claimant's] statutory argument cannot overcome the clear intent expressed by the structure and language of the statutory scheme at issue—that a veteran's claim to disability benefits terminates at death."). We review de novo the judgment of the court below on this question. Markovich v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., 477 F.3d 1353, 1355-56 (Fed. Cir.2007); see also 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-12(e)(2)(13).

The Program was established by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, Pub.L. No. 99-660, tit. III, 100 Stat. 3743, 3755 (1986) ("Vaccine Act"). As we have previously noted,

Congress instituted this compensatory program because the traditional civil tort actions against vaccine manufacturers were producing undesirable results both with respect to the victims and the vaccine industry. Congress found that the traditional tort system was not working for victims because it resulted in lengthy delays, high transaction costs, and sometimes no recovery. Similarly, the high cost of litigation and difficulty of obtaining insurance was undermining incentives for vaccine manufacturers to remain in the vaccine market. In sum, Congress was concerned with the instability and unpredictability in the childhood vaccine market.

Lowry v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., 189 F.3d 1378, 1381 (Fed.Cir.1999) (citing H.R. Rep. 99-908, at 6-7, reprinted in 1986 U.S.C.C.A.N. 6344, 6347-48 ("House Report")).

As its structure reflects, the Program was "intended to be expeditious and fair" and "to compensate persons with recognized vaccine injuries without requiring the difficult individual determinations of causation of injury and without a demonstration that a manufacturer was negligent or that a vaccine was defective." House Report at 12, reprinted in 1986 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 6353; see also id. at 13, reprinted in 1986 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 6354. ("The Committee anticipates that the speed of the compensation program, the low transaction costs of the system, the no-fault nature of the required findings, and the relative certainty and generosity of the system's awards will divert a significant number of potential plaintiffs from litigation."). "Any person who has sustained a vaccine-related injury, the legal representative of such person if such person is a minor or is disabled, or the legal representative of any person who died as the result of the administration of a vaccine set forth in the Vaccine Injury Table" may file a petition under the Program. 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-11(b)(1)(A); see also id. § 300aa-14 (Vaccine Injury Table).³ Causation is "presumed" where "an injury or condition listed in the Vaccine Injury Table begins to manifest itself within the time specified in the Table for the vaccine in question." Hines v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., 940 F.2d 1518, 1524 (Fed.Cir.1991); see also 42 U.S.C. §§ 300aa-11(c)(1)(C)(i), -13(a)(1)(A)-(B).⁴ The. Vaccine Act also requires that the procedures established for resolving claims under the...