Catherine Deegan Patterson and Yvonne Deegan Gioka appeal from the district court judgment which dismissed their Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) complaint due to their failure to file within the applicable two-year statute of limitations. See 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b). We affirm.
I
BACKGROUND
In March 1965, two FBI informants— Vincent Flemmi and Joseph Barboza— murdered Edward “Teddy” Deegan in Chelsea, Massachusetts. The Boston office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) knew beforehand of the informants’ plans, but did nothing either to stop the murder, or to prevent the subsequent wrongful conviction of two other men— Peter Limone and Joseph Salvati — for the Deegan murder.
In December 2000, the Boston Globe, in a series of sensational exposés of corruption within the Boston FBI office, revealed the FBI’s complicity in the Deegan slaying. For example, on December 21, 2000, the Boston Globe published an article titled “FBI REPORTEDLY HID KEY EVIDENCE, DOCUMENTS SHOW IT KNEW OF DEEGAN SLAYING PLOT IN '65,” in which it reported: “Secret documents recently discovered in a Justice Department probe of FBI corruption appear to show that the bureau knew not only that the wrong men were convicted of a 1965 gangland murder, but also that agents were told about the plot two days before it happened and apparently did nothing to stop it.” During the following month, the story received national press coverage. On January 8 and 18, 2001, respectively, a Massachusetts superior court judge vacated the Limone and Salva-ti convictions, which actions likewise received local and national media attention.
On January 27, 2003, Teddy Deegan’s brother Richard submitted an administrative claim for wrongful death under the FTCA against the United States, purporting to act as the “voluntary” administrator of Teddy’s estate. As Massachusetts law does not recognize the authority of voluntary administrators to submit wrongful death claims,
see Marco v. Green,
On December 5, 2003, Catherine Deegan Patterson (acting as the newly-appointed administrator of her father’s estate) and her sister Yvonne Deegan Gioka submitted their own administrative claim to the government, seeking recompense both for their father’s wrongful death and for infliction of emotional distress. Patterson was residing in New Hampshire, Gioka in Georgia. The government denied the Pat *270 terson and Gioka administrative claim as untimely, and on August 20, 2004, Patterson and Gioka timely filed the instant complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, asserting both wrongful death and emotional distress claims. The United States moved to dismiss the complaint due to the failure of plaintiffs’ December 5, 2003 administrative claim to satisfy the FTCA’s two-year limitations provision. See 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b). In response, Patterson and Gi-oka argued, inter alia, that (i) Gioka’s administrative claim was timely because she lived in Georgia, and did not learn of the FBI’s involvement in her father’s death until Catherine told her the news in the summer of 2002; and (ii) their December 2003 administrative claim, even if untimely, should nonetheless “relate back” to the date of their Uncle Richard’s original and timely administrative claim on January 27, 2003.
The district court rejected both contentions and granted the government’s motion to dismiss. The court pointed to the extensive national press coverage the Dee-gan story had received, then found that the Gioka claim had accrued more than two years prior to the filing of their December 2003 claim. The court also spurned the “relation back” argument on the ground that Richard, qua “voluntary administrator,” was not authorized under Massachusetts law to submit a claim in behalf of the Deegan estate, thus the government had no reason or responsibility to investigate his wrongful death allegations. Patterson and Gioka now appeal from the dismissal order.
II
DISCUSSION
Because the parties do not dispute the predicate jurisdictional facts, we review the grant of the motion to dismiss the complaint
de novo. See Skwira v. United States,
A. The December 2003 Administrative Claim
The plaintiffs first contend that, since Gioka neither knew nor had reason to know of the FBI’s involvement in her father’s murder until the summer of 2002, the district court erred in finding that the Gioka administrative claim, presented to the government in December 2003, was untimely under § 2401(b). The plaintiffs assert that the publicity about the case was centered primarily in the Boston area rather than national in scope, and that Gioka, who was in chronic poor health, lived in Georgia where she was not pre *271 sumptively exposed to Boston media reports.
For purposes of calculating the § 2401(b) accrual date, the government need not demonstrate that plaintiffs had actual knowledge of the news of December 2000-January 2001;
“
‘[wjhere events receive widespread publicity, plaintiffs may be charged with [constructive] knowledge of their occurrence.’ ”
Callahan v. United States,
Gioka also contends that her medical condition, which included cognitive problems arising from an automobile accident, a stroke, and Lyme disease, prevented her from making a reasonable inquiry and discovering the FBI’s complicity in her father’s murder. Assuming, without deciding, that § 2401(b) might permit such a “mental incapacity” exception,
1
Gioka has not alleged facts which would enable her to assert it. She does not contend that her illnesses rendered her mentally incompetent. Thus, at a minimum, she would have to point to evidence demonstrating that the degree of her mental incapacity rendered her “incapable” of discovering with the exercise of reasonable diligence — and then of understanding — the news of the FBI’s involvement in her father’s death.
See, e.g., Barnhart v. United States,
Gioka has failed to make the requisite showing. She presents no medical reports detailing precisely how, or to what extent, her illnesses in fact impaired her ability to discover or comprehend the facts which were widely publicized in the national media. The Gioka affidavit merely states: “At times, my concern about my health has been overwhelming and has left little room for other matters, including considerations of my father’s death.” She does not specify at which “times” she was incapacitated, *272 which leaves open the possibility that she was not significantly impaired, for example, in December 2000 and early 2001 when the Deegan story first broke in the press. Further, even if we were to infer that her medical condition kept her bedridden or housebound, it apparently did not prevent her from accessing the media, since she admits to “a memory of seeing the very end of a CNN report about Mr. Salvati.” Finally, Gioka’s sister, Catherine Patterson, admits that she had knowledge of the pertinent facts by the summer of 2001, 2 and it strains credulity to suggest that Patterson, knowing of her sister’s alleged inability to conduct her own reasonably diligent inquiry, waited until the summer of 2002 to inform her sister of those facts. Thus, even assuming arguendo that mental incapacity could toll the accrual of an FTCA claim, Gioka has not provided a sufficient factual basis entitling her to that defense.
B. The January 2003 Administrative Claim
By analogy to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(c)(3), plaintiffs argue that their untimely administrative claim of December 2003 should “relate back” to the timely administrative claim submitted by their Uncle Richard, on January 27, 2003, for $100 million in damages, because the latter presented the same core allegations concerning the FBI’s complicity in the wrongful death of their father. Further, they contend that the government would suffer no prejudice, since even if Richard had no authority under Massachusetts law as a “voluntary” administrator to file claims in behalf of his brother’s estate, the FTCA notification requirement is not intended to be applied hyper-technically, but is satisfied if, as here, the government receives sufficient information to allow it to investigate the particular allegations of government misfeasance.
See 28
U.S.C. § 2675(a);
Kubrick,
The district court held that the plaintiffs’ claims could not “relate back” to Richard’s January 27, 2003 claim because Richard — as a mere “voluntary” administrator — had no legal authority to act in behalf of his brother’s estate, thus the government had no “incentive” to investigate the merits of his claim. Although this conclusion arguably may make sense from the policy standpoint that the government should not be made to commit its valuable time and resources to investigate a claim asserted by a party which lacks legal standing to pursue either settlement or litigation, the district court cited no supportive case authority for this proposition, and the legal question is neither straightforward nor well-settled. Indeed, we have noted that the express jurisdictional prerequisites of § 2675(a) are fully satisfied as long as the claimant states a claim of government wrongdoing and defines its damages in a sum certain,
see Santiago-Ramirez,
Although the district court chose to bypass the question, the record demonstrates that Richard’s January 27, 2003 administrative claim was not timely, and relation back (even if permissible) would therefore be futile.
See Global Naps, Inc. v. Verizon New England, Inc.,
At this time, Richard was residing in that very Boston media market, viz., on nearby Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The plaintiffs rely on Richard’s attestations that he was retired at this time, and heard nothing of these media reports. As we have noted, however, the test for FTCA accrual is not subjective, but objective, and in these particular circumstances, Richard must be assumed to have been exposed to the widespread in-state publicity concerning his own brother’s murder. Moreover, assuming without deciding that Richard’s retirement status might equitably toll the FTCA accrual date, the record does not contain any factual allegations to support the requisite inference that Richard’s retirement was either so cloistered or debilitative that it prevented him from gaining access to these widespread media reports. Finally, and most importantly, the Boston Globe published an article on December 21, 2000 entitled “FBI REPORTEDLY HID KEY EVIDENCE, DOCUMENTS SHOW IT KNEW OF DEEGAN SLAYING PLOT IN '65,” and the very next day, the Globe published an article entitled “SLAY VICTIM’S FAMILY TROUBLED BY REPORT ON FBI,” in which a reporter interviewed Richard Deegan himself about the breaking news.
As Richard’s administrative claim was submitted more than two years after he reasonably should have acquired knowledge of the FBI’s involvement in his own brother’s murder, it was untimely, and thus the plaintiffs’ attempts to have their claims relate back to that claim are plainly futile.
Affirmed.
Notes
. Because § 2401(b) is a crucial condition to the United States' waiver of sovereign immunity under the FTCA, any exceptions to its limitation must be strictly construed in the government’s favor.
See Kubrick,
. Accordingly, Patterson does not argue on appeal that her December 2003 administrative claim was timely as to her own claims.
. The plaintiffs also state on appeal that, in order to avoid any unfair prejudice to the government, they intend that their claims relate back only to the extent of the damages set forth in Richard's original administrative claim, viz., $100 million.