Allen v. Brown

320 F. Supp. 3d 16
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedAugust 1, 2018
DocketCivil Action No. 17-1951 (ESH)
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 320 F. Supp. 3d 16 (Allen v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. Brown, 320 F. Supp. 3d 16 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

Opinion

Accordingly, the Court concludes that the claims in the current litigation are not barred by the doctrine of res judicata.

B. FTCA Judgment Bar

Defendants next argue that because this Court dismissed the FTCA claim in the 2015 Litigation (Count V), plaintiffs' current claims are barred by the FTCA's "judgment bar," 28 U.S.C. § 2676, which provides that:

The judgment in an action under section 1346(b) of this title [the FTCA] shall constitute a complete bar to any action by the claimant, by reason of the same subject matter, against the employee of *36the government whose act or omission gave rise to the claim.

28 U.S.C. § 2676.

In the 2015 Litigation, the Court never entered "judgment" on plaintiffs' FTCA claim. The sole FTCA claim in 2015 Litigation was brought against Secretary McDonald in his official capacity as Secretary of the VA. (See Compl. ¶¶ 96-98, 2015 Litigation.) Defendants moved to dismiss the claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the ground that an FTCA claim can only be brought against the United States, not a federal employee or agency. See Allen v. Brown , 185 F.Supp.3d at 10. Plaintiffs conceded that defendants were correct, and the Court, agreeing, dismissed the FTCA claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. See Allen v. Brown , 185 F.Supp.3d at 10 ("Count V should have been filed against the United States as the FTCA does not authorize suits against federal officials or federal agencies.") (citing Kissi v. Simmons , No. 09-cv-1377, 2009 WL 3429567, at *1 (D.D.C. Oct. 22, 2009) ("the proper defendant to an action under the FTCA is the United States of America") ). A dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction is not a "judgment on the merits." See 10A C. Wright, A. Miller, & M. Kane, Federal Practice & Procedure § 2713, p. 239 (3d ed. 1998) ("If the court has no jurisdiction, it has no power to enter a judgment on the merits."); Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 11, p. 108 (1980) ("A judgment may properly be rendered against a party only if the court has authority to adjudicate the type of controversy involved in the action."). Accordingly, the dismissal of the FTCA claim in the 2015 Litigation was not a judgment under the FTCA, and the FTCA's judgment bar does not apply.

C. Statute of Limitations (Count 1)

Defendants argue that Counts 1, 2 and 3 are barred by the applicable statute of limitations. Having already concluded that Counts 2 and 3 must be dismissed for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, the Court will limit its discussion to Count 1.

"A court may only rule on a statute of limitations defense when the face of the complaint conclusively indicates it is time-barred." Sykes v. U.S. Att'y for D.C. , 770 F.Supp.2d 152, 154 (D.D.C. 2011). That is not the situation here.

A civil claim under the federal wiretapping statute "may not be commenced later than two years after the date upon which the claimant first has a reasonable opportunity to discover the violation." 18 U.S.C. § 2520(e). Defendants argue that Count 1 is barred by this two-year limitations period because "[p]laintiffs have, in essence, admitted that by January 24, 2014 they had 'the first reasonable opportunity to discover the violation,' " yet the pending case was not filed until September 22, 2017. (Defs.' Mem. at 14 (citing Am. Compl. ¶ 36, which states "On January 24, 2014, various officers found a camera with a microphone covertly mounted on a support bracket for the CCTV monitors with a microphone hidden behind the monitors.").) Plaintiffs take the position that Count 1 is a tort that involves "continuing injury," so "the cause of action accrues, and the limitations period begins to run, at the time the tortious conduct ceases." (Pls.' Opp'n at 26.)

Defendant's argument is not persuasive. Under their view, plaintiffs' discovery of the surveillance equipment (in a single location) on January 24, 2014, would bar any federal wiretapping claim filed after January 24, 2016, even if the claim were based on surveillance that took place at different locations or at later dates, including dates within two years of when this case was filed. In other words, if plaintiffs failed to *37sue before January 24, 2016, defendants would be able to continue their allegedly unlawful conduct indefinitely. This argument is contrary to the law of this jurisdiction. See Page v. United States , 729 F.2d 818, 821 (D.C. Cir. 1984) ("knowledge acquired in 1972 that one has a claim could not trigger time limitations on allegedly tortious conduct that had not then occurred").

In addition, defendants' argument assumes that an extended period of surveillance in multiple locations only constitutes a single violation of the wiretapping statute, but there is authority, arguably endorsed by the D.C. Circuit, that each interception is a discrete violation. See Sparshott v. Feld Entm't, Inc. , 311 F.3d 425, 431 (D.C. Cir. 2002) (dismissing federal wiretap claim where there were "no incidents of wiretapping which occurred within two years of the plaintiffs' filing suit"); see also Fultz v. Gilliam , 942 F.2d 396, 402 (6th Cir. 1991) ("The text of the Wiretapping Act plainly indicates, and its purpose necessitates, that a new and discrete cause of action accrue under section 2511(1)(c) each time a recording of an unlawfully intercepted communication is played to a third party who has not yet heard it.") If that is the case, then interceptions that took place more than two years before the complaint was filed would be barred by the statute of limitations while those that took place within two years would not be.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
320 F. Supp. 3d 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-brown-cadc-2018.