Barbara Dolan v. United States Postal Service et al. (546 U.S. 481)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 22, 2006 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 546 U.S. 481 · 126 S. Ct. 1252
- Decided
- February 22, 2006
- Term
- October Term 2005
- Vote
- 7–1
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. Each day, according to the Government’s submissions here, the United States Postal Service delivers some 660 million pieces of mail to as many as 142 million delivery points. This case involves one such delivery point — petitioner Barbara Dolan’s porch — where mail left by postal employees allegedly caused her to trip and fall. Claiming injuries as a result, Dolan filed a claim for administrative relief from the Postal Service. When her claim was denied, she and her husband (whose claim for loss of consortium the Dolans later conceded was barred for failure to exhaust administrative remedies) filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, asserting that the Postal Service’s negligent placement of mail at their home subjected the Government to liability under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U. S. C. §§ 1346(b)(1), 2674. The District Court dismissed Dolan’s suit, and the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed, 377 F. 3d 285 (2004). Both courts concluded that, although the FTCA generally waives sovereign immunity as to federal employees’ torts, Dolan’s claims were barred by an exception to that waiver, 28 U. S. C. § 2680(b). We disagree and hold that Dolan’s suit may proceed. I Under the Postal Reorganization Act, 39 U. S. C. § 101 et seq., the Postal Service is “an…
Excerpt of a 18,826-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.