Claims over care at a Navy hospital or a VA clinic

Naval Hospital Jacksonville says it includes a hospital and five branch health clinics across Florida and Georgia (opens in a new tab), one of them at Mayport. Its pages are published on tricare.mil, an official website of the Defense Health Agency, a component of the Military Health System (opens in a new tab).

Those pages describe labor and delivery in family-centered suites at the hospital (opens in a new tab) and an emergency department open 24/7 (opens in a new tab). The hospital’s page for VA patients says certain veterans can sign up for access to Naval Air Station Jacksonville (opens in a new tab).

VA says its facilities for north Florida and south Georgia include medical centers in Gainesville and Lake City (opens in a new tab). In Jacksonville its locations page lists three health clinics (opens in a new tab), among them Jacksonville 1 VA Clinic, which VA calls an outpatient clinic on Jefferson Street (opens in a new tab).

These are the rules for a claim against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act. A service member’s own claim is under a separate rule, set out in the next section. Negligent care by a federal employee acting within the scope of the job is a claim against the United States, which is liable where a private person would be liable under the law of the place where the act or omission occurred (opens in a new tab). That remedy is exclusive of any other action against the employee (opens in a new tab).

The claim goes to the agency before any court. It is barred unless presented in writing to the appropriate federal agency within two years after it accrues (opens in a new tab), and it counts as presented when the agency receives it with a claim for a specific sum in money damages (opens in a new tab). A later suit generally may not seek more than the amount of the claim presented (opens in a new tab).

The two years do not wait for the patient to learn of negligence: the U.S. Supreme Court held in 1979 that accrual of such a claim does not await awareness by the plaintiff that his injury was negligently inflicted (opens in a new tab).

Service members are under a separate rule. Federal regulations state that claims by members of the uniformed services for injury or death incident to service are not allowed under the Federal Tort Claims Act (opens in a new tab). The U.S. Supreme Court held in 1950 that the Government is not liable under that Act for injuries to servicemen that arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service (opens in a new tab).

A member may instead present a claim to the Department of Defense for malpractice by one of its health care providers at a military hospital or clinic the statute covers, in writing within two years after the claim accrues (opens in a new tab), and the decision on it is not subject to review in any court (opens in a new tab). Congress added that claim in December 2019 (opens in a new tab).

Those two rules are written about service members. The 1950 decision concerns injuries to servicemen incident to service, and a claim in the Department’s process may be filed only by a member of a uniformed service (opens in a new tab), or for a member who has died or cannot file. Neither says which rules apply to a family member’s own care at a military hospital, or to a retiree’s. That has to be answered for each patient.

A veteran’s claim over care by VA’s own staff is a claim against the United States, and it goes to the agency first. The rule that makes the United States the defendant covers a health care employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs (opens in a new tab).

Separately from a tort claim, where VA care caused an additional disability through carelessness, negligence, lack of proper skill, error in judgment, or similar instance of fault (opens in a new tab) on VA’s part, a veteran may be able to receive disability compensation as if it were service-connected. After a judgment, settlement or compromise of the tort claim, no such benefits are paid until the benefits withheld equal its total amount (opens in a new tab).

A service member’s claim does not go to a court: the law behind it does not give Federal courts jurisdiction over claims (opens in a new tab). For a claim against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, no suit may be filed until the agency has finally denied the claim in writing, or has gone six months after it was filed without a final disposition (opens in a new tab). Suit on that claim must then be begun within six months after the agency mails its notice of final denial (opens in a new tab), and the case is tried by the court without a jury (opens in a new tab).

That suit may be prosecuted only in the judicial district where the plaintiff resides or wherein the act or omission complained of occurred (opens in a new tab). Duval County is in the Middle District of Florida, and federal law lists Jacksonville among the places where that court is held (opens in a new tab).

Our page on the Duval County courts covers the state and federal courts.