NOT THE SHARPEST KNIVES IN THE DRAWER: When It Absolutely, Positively Has To Be There, Don’t Drop It In The Mail
In a lawsuit brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the "mailbox rule" – the presumption that a letter mailed is a letter received – “cannot be invoked against the U.S. Postal Service to save an otherwise time-barred claim,” reports The Legal Intelligencer:
[T]he court said, a plaintiff pursuing a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act has the burden of proving that the federal agency was "presented" with a timely administrative claim, and that proof of mailing is not enough.
"The term 'presented' in the filing of an administrative claim means more than merely mailing the claim," visiting Judge Richard G. Stearns of the District of Massachusetts wrote for a unanimous 3rd Circuit panel.
The USPS claimed its in-house counsel never received the request for reconsideration filed by plaintiff Cedric Lightfoot after the agency denied his tort claim for being sideswiped by a postal van while driving on Broad Street in Philadelphia in October 2004. The appellate court affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of Lightfoot’s claim on the grounds that the statute of limitations had elapsed.
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