Filed: Oct. 08, 2014
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 14-1063 PENNY BROWNING, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Defendant - Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, at Beckley. Irene C. Berger, District Judge. (5:13-cv-21980) Submitted: September 18, 2014 Decided: October 8, 2014 Before DUNCAN, WYNN, and DIAZ, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Sprague W. Hazard, Rachel J. Goldfar
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 14-1063 PENNY BROWNING, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Defendant - Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, at Beckley. Irene C. Berger, District Judge. (5:13-cv-21980) Submitted: September 18, 2014 Decided: October 8, 2014 Before DUNCAN, WYNN, and DIAZ, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Sprague W. Hazard, Rachel J. Goldfarb..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 14-1063
PENNY BROWNING,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
v.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Defendant - Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern
District of West Virginia, at Beckley. Irene C. Berger,
District Judge. (5:13-cv-21980)
Submitted: September 18, 2014 Decided: October 8, 2014
Before DUNCAN, WYNN, and DIAZ, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Sprague W. Hazard, Rachel J. Goldfarb, THE BELL LAW FIRM, PLLC,
Charleston, West Virginia, for Appellant. Stuart F. Delery,
Assistant Attorney General, James G. Touhey, Jr., Director,
Torts Branch, Kirsten L. Wilkerson, Assistant Director, Torts
Branch, John A. Woodcock, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
Washington, D.C., for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:
Penny Browning appeals the district court’s order
granting the United States’ motion to dismiss her complaint
brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) as time
barred under 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b) (2012). We affirm.
We review a district court’s order granting a motion
to dismiss de novo. Giarratano v. Johnson,
521 F.3d 298, 302
(4th Cir. 2008). A tort claim against the United States will be
barred unless the claim is presented to the appropriate federal
agency within two years after the claim accrues. 28 U.S.C.
§ 2401(b). “This time limitation is jurisdictional and
nonwaivable.” Gould v. United States Dep’t of Health & Human
Servs.,
905 F.2d 738, 741 (4th Cir. 1990). If the plaintiff
files a civil action against the wrong defendant, under 28
U.S.C. § 2679(d)(5) (2012), an administrative claim filed after
the federal government has been substituted as the proper party
“shall be deemed to be timely presented . . . if . . . the claim
would have been timely [under the FTCA’s two-year statute of
limitations] had it been filed on the date the underlying civil
action was commenced.”
We agree with the district court that Browning
commenced her civil action in state court against the wrong
defendants more than two years after her cause of action
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accrued. Thus, the court properly found that her complaint was
barred by the two-year statute of limitations.
Browning has raised several new issues in an attempt
to circumvent application of the two-year limitations period.
She claims that (1) the district court erred by setting an
arbitrary accrual date without taking into account the discovery
rule; (2) the district court should have sua sponte considered
whether the limitations period is equitably tolled because
Browning was diligent in pursuing her claim; and (3) the
limitations period should have been equitably tolled because of
the difficulty in ascertaining that the individual defendants
Browning sued in state court were federal employees.
“‘[I]ssues raised for the first time on appeal
generally will not be considered’ except in the narrowest of
circumstances, where, for example, plain error or a fundamental
miscarriage of justice would otherwise result.” United States
v. Am. Target Adver., Inc.,
257 F.3d 348, 351 (4th Cir. 2001)
(quoting Karpel v. Inova Health Sys. Servs.,
134 F.3d 1222, 1227
(4th Cir. 1998)). We have reviewed Browning’s contentions and
conclude that such circumstances do not exist here.
Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s judgment.
We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal
3
contentions are adequately presented in the materials before
this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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