Tonight's weird (but true) legal case asks - how do you sue the US Postal Service? The answer - not the way that the insurance carrier tried it in tonight's case analysis.
In Progressive Northeastern Ins. Co. a/s/o Bedford v. United States Postal Service, 2008 WL 4834508 (N.D.N.Y.), the court was faced with the following interesting fact pattern. In 2006, the Bedford family was involved in a car accident with another vehicle causing damages to the Bedford vehicle. As noted by the court, the accident occurred when Mrs Bedford failed to stop at a stop sign and collided with the other vehicle. So why sue the Postal Service? Because Mrs Bedford claimed that the mail truck parked on the corner prevented her from seeing the stop sign. And since Progressive paid to fix the Bedford car, they chose to subrogate against the Postal Service.
So how does one sue the Postal Service? Under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), someone with a potential lawsuit against the federal government and/or any of its agencies or employees is supposed to submit a claim form within two years of the event. If the government refuses to pay the claim, they then notify the claimant that the claim is denied and the person has six months to file a lawsuit in any Federal District Court. One additional caveat is that the claim is filed against the US Government, not the agency or employee.
In this matter, the insurer got it partially right, since the claim form was submitted to the Postal Service within the two year time frame. However, once the Postal Service rejected the claim, the insurer sat on its rights until sixteen months later when it filed a lawsuit in state court against the postal service and the driver of the mail truck.
Upon receipt of the suit, the U.S. Attorney removed the matter to Federal Court and then moved to dismiss based on the multiple defects. Needless to say, the insurer did not bother to oppose the motion and the case was dismissed.
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