Jenkins v. United States of America

On August 28, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Jenkins v. United States of America. The plaintiff, John Jenkins, a military veteran, alleged that he suffered permanent injuries due to surgical negligence at a Veterans Affairs medical facility. He filed a medical malpractice claim against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The government moved to dismiss, arguing that Jenkins failed to file within the FTCA’s two-year statute of limitations. The district court agreed and dismissed the case. Jenkins appealed, asserting that the limitations period should commence when he discovered his injury rather than on the date of the surgery. The Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal, holding that the FTCA’s timing requirements are jurisdictional and strictly applied, and that the discovery rule did not save his untimely claim.

The Federal Circuit affirmed the lower court’s dismissal, ruling that Jenkins’s claim was time-barred under the FTCA’s two-year statute of limitations.

Whether the statute of limitations under the Federal Tort Claims Act for a medical malpractice claim against a VA hospital begins to run at the time of the alleged negligent act or when the plaintiff actually discovered the resulting injury.

The ruling reinforced the strict jurisdictional nature of the FTCA’s statute of limitations, potentially limiting the ability of veterans to pursue late-discovered medical malpractice claims against government-run facilities and underscoring the necessity of prompt legal action.