Steven Alan Levin, Petitioner v. United States et al. (568 U.S. 503)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 4, 2013 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 568 U.S. 503 · 133 S. Ct. 1224
- Decided
- March 4, 2013
- Term
- October Term 2012
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioner Steven Alan Levin, a veteran, suffered injuries as a result of cataract surgery performed at the U. S. Naval Hospital in Guam. He asserts that, just prior to the operation, concern about equipment in the operating room led him to withdraw his consent to the surgery. Seeking compensation from the United States, Levin sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U. S. C. §§ 1346(b), 2671-2680, which waives the Government’s sovereign immunity from tort suits, but excepts from the waiver certain intentional torts, including battery, § 2680(h). Levin relied on the Gonzalez Act, 10 U. S. C. § 1089, which makes the remedy against the United States under the FTCA preclusive of any suit against Armed Forces medical personnel, § 1089(a). In the provision at issue in this case, § 1089(e), the Gonzalez Act declares that, “[f]or purposes of” the Act, the intentional tort exception to the FTCA “shall not apply to any cause of action arising out of a negligent or wrongful act or omission in the performance of medical. . . functions.” The Government reads § 1089(e) simply to shore up § 1089(a)’s immunization of medical personnel against tort liability. Levin, in contrast, reads § 1089(e) to establish his right to bring a claim of medical battery against the United States under the FTCA without encountering the intentional…
Excerpt of a 27,381-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.