JENNIFER WALKER ELROD, Circuit Judge:
This is an action under the Federal Tort Claims Act ("FTCA"), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b)(1), 2671-80 (2006), in which Philip M. King ("King") seeks compensatory damages for loss of property and personal injuries allegedly caused by the negligence and malice of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and others (collectively, "the VA"). The VA moved to dismiss King's claims, contending that the Veterans Judicial Review Act ("VJRA"), 38 U.S.C. § 511 (2006), and alternatively the United States' sovereign immunity, barred the district court from exercising jurisdiction over King's claims. The district court granted the VA's motion to dismiss. We AFFIRM.
King suffered injury in Iraq while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Based on his diagnosis of ruptured discs in his neck and back, radiculopathy, and nerve entrapment in his arms and legs, King applied for veterans' benefits. In January 2006, the VA awarded him benefits based on an 80% service-connected disability rating. King disagreed with his rating, believing it should be increased to 100%; accordingly, he submitted additional information in support of an increase, including his status as a recipient of workers' compensation benefits through his private insurance company. In July 2007, rather than increasing King's disability rating, the VA terminated his benefits based on an apparent misunderstanding regarding his ability to receive simultaneously VA benefits and workers' compensation benefits under the Defense Base Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1651 (2006).
In seeking reinstatement of his benefits, King submitted to the VA letters of support from both the Department of Labor and his private insurer. The VA did not change its decision, however. To the contrary, it attempted to recover from King the benefits it previously paid to him. King continued his attempts to resolve the situation with phone calls, letters, e-mails, and additional documentation. King also submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request related to his benefits. Eventually, King spoke on the telephone with an attorney for the VA who took action to reinstate King's benefits.
King filed an administrative claim in 2010. He alleged that the VA acted unlawfully and that he sustained damages based on the loss of his benefits for eight months. After hearing nothing in response to his administrative claim, King sued the VA in May 2011, asserting state-law
We review de novo the district court's dismissal for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(1). Ballew v. Cont'l Airlines, Inc., 668 F.3d 777, 781 (5th Cir.2012) (citations omitted). As the party asserting jurisdiction, King "bears the burden of proof for a 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss." See id. (citation omitted). To meet that burden, King "must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the court has jurisdiction based on the complaint and evidence." See id. (citation omitted). We may determine that subject-matter jurisdiction is lacking based on "(1) the complaint alone; (2) the complaint supplemented by undisputed facts evidenced in the record; or (3) the complaint supplemented by undisputed facts plus the court's resolution of disputed facts." Ramming v. United States, 281 F.3d 158, 161 (5th Cir.2001) (citing Barrera-Montenegro v. United States, 74 F.3d 657, 659 (5th Cir.1996)). Ultimately, we may affirm the district court's dismissal on any ground the record supports. Moncrief Oil Int'l Inc. v. OAO Gazprom, 481 F.3d 309, 311 (5th Cir.2007).
King's arguments fall into two categories relevant to our decision: First, King contends that the district court erred in holding that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction based on the VJRA. Second and alternatively, King asserts that the Administrative Procedure Act ("APA") provides a basis for the district court to assert jurisdiction over his claims. For the reasons below, we conclude that the district court correctly rejected these arguments and dismissed King's claims.
The VJRA cabins judicial review of veterans' benefits determinations. Specifically, section 511(a) provides that:
38 U.S.C. § 511(a) (2006) (emphasis added).
60 F.3d 1156, 1158-59 (5th Cir.1995) (footnotes omitted). Under these provisions, the district court lacked jurisdiction if King's claims amounted to an appeal of the VA's benefits decisions. The district court concluded that they did, and we agree.
King's primary argument on appeal is that the district court need not delve into the VA's benefits decisions because the VA admitted that it "erroneously terminated [his] benefits." Even if the VA admitted error, however, it did not admit to negligence, much less malice. To award King damages based on his complaint, the district court would have to analyze whether the VA's agents knew or should have known that the denial of King's benefits was wrong. That analysis would involve questions of law and fact related to the VA's benefits decisions, and those are issues that section 511 places outside the district court's jurisdiction. Persuasive authority illustrates this point.
The Third Circuit's decision in Dambach v. United States is particularly instructive. 211 Fed.Appx. 105 (3d Cir.2006) (unpublished but persuasive). There, a veteran endured a "nine-year odyssey to win disability benefits from the [VA]." Id. at 106. He then sued the VA under the FTCA, alleging that his claim for benefits "was wrongfully denied more than thirteen times ... [because of] the failure to consider established or admitted facts ... and finally and most importantly the failure to apply controlling federal statutory law." Id. at 107 (alterations in original). In affirming the district court's dismissal based on section 511, the Dambach court reasoned that the veteran's claims fell outside the district court's jurisdiction because they "challenge[d] earlier denials of a claim for benefits as well as related decisions on questions of fact and law." Id. at 108. The same holds true here. King bases his claims on the VA's earlier denials of his benefits. Moreover, just as the veteran in Dambach challenged the VA's "failure to consider established [and] admitted facts ... [and] to apply controlling federal statutory law," id. at 107, King challenges the VA's failure to consider the facts in his letters and e-mails and to apply correctly the Defense Base Act.
The district court's dismissal also comports with the reasoning in Price v. United States, 228 F.3d 420, 421-22 (D.C.Cir. 2000). The veteran in Price sued the VA alleging that it wrongfully failed to comply with its legal obligation to reimburse him for certain medical expenses and caused him additional harm when it sought to collect unpaid medical bills on behalf of medical service providers. 228 F.3d at
The cases that King relies on are distinguishable. See Thomas v. Principi, 394 F.3d 970, 974-75 (D.C.Cir.2005) (allowing a plaintiff to proceed on a claim that the VA failed to inform him of a schizophrenia diagnosis because the claim would not require the court "to determine first whether the VA acted properly in handling [his] benefits request"); Cortes Castillo v. Veterans Admin., 433 F.Supp.2d 221, 224-25 (D.P.R.2006) (concluding that section 511 did not bar claims based on doctor's alleged negligence in issuing a psychiatric evaluation with no medical basis because the claims did not challenge the factual or legal determinations upon which the VA awarded benefits). In Thomas and Cortes Castillo, the courts concluded that section 511 did not apply because the claims at issue did not challenge the propriety of the VA's handling of a veteran's benefits. See Thomas, 394 F.3d at 974-75; Cortes Castillo, 433 F.Supp.2d at 224-25. Here, by contrast, King's claims would require the district court to assess the VA's benefits decisions. Therefore, we agree with the district court that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction under the VJRA to adjudicate King's claims. See Dambach, 211 Fed. Appx. at 107-08; Price, 228 F.3d at 422; Weaver, 98 F.3d at 519-20.
As an alternative argument to establish the district court's jurisdiction over his claims, King urges that his complaint "implicitly" invoked provisions in the APA.
For the reasons above, we AFFIRM the district court's dismissal of King's claims.