*1 OCTOBER TERM, 2014 (Slip Opinion) Syllabus NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is
being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.
The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See
United States
v.
Detroit Timber & Lumber Co.,
Syllabus v . KWAI FUN WONG
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
THE NINTH CIRCUIT
No. 13–1074. Argued December 10, 2014—Decided April 22, 2015* The Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) provides that a tort claim against
the United States “shall be forever barred” unless the claimant meets two deadlines. First, a claim must be presented to the appropriate federal agency for administrative review “within two years after [the] claim accrues.” 28 U. S. C. §2401(b). Second, if the agency denies the claim, the claimant may file suit in federal court “within six months” of the agency’s denial. Ibid.
Kwai Fun Wong and Marlene June, respondents in Nos. 13–1074 and 13–1075, respectively, each missed one of those deadlines. Wong failed to file her FTCA claim in federal court within 6 months, but argued that that was only because the District Court had not permit- ted her to file that claim until after the period expired. June failed to present her FTCA claim to a federal agency within 2 years, but ar- gued that her untimely filing should be excused because the Govern- ment had, in her view, concealed facts vital to her claim. In each case, the District Court dismissed the FTCA claim for failure to satis- fy §2401(b)’s time bars, holding that, despite any justification for de- lay, those time bars are jurisdictional and not subject to equitable tolling. The Ninth Circuit reversed in both cases, concluding that §2401(b)’s time bars may be equitably tolled.
Held : Section 2401(b)’s time limits are subject to equitable tolling.
Pp. 4–18.
(a) v.
Department of Veterans Affairs
,
* Together with No. 13–1075, United States June, Conservator , al- so on certiorari to the same court.
Syllabus
Court adopted a “rebuttable presumption” that such time bars may
be equitably tolled.
Id.
, at 95.
Irwin
’s presumption may, of course,
be rebutted. One way to do so—pursued by the Government here—is
to demonstrate that the statute of limitations at issue is jurisdiction-
al; if so, the statute cannot be equitably tolled. But this Court will
not conclude that a time bar is jurisdictional unless Congress pro-
vides a “clear statement” to that effect.
Sebelius
v.
Auburn Regional
Medical Center
,
(b) Congress did no such thing in enacting §2401(b). The text of that provision speaks only to a claim’s timeliness; it does not refer to the jurisdiction of the district courts or address those courts’ authori- ty to hear untimely suits. See Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp. , 546 U. S. 500, 515. Instead, it “reads like an ordinary, run-of-the-mill statute of limitations.” Holland v. Florida , 560 U. S. 631, 647. Statutory context confirms that reading. Congress’s separation of a filing dead- line from a jurisdictional grant often indicates that the deadline is not jurisdictional, and here the FTCA’s jurisdictional grant appears not in §2401(b) but in another section of Title 28, §1346(b)(1). That jurisdictional grant is not expressly conditioned on compliance with §2401(b)’s limitations periods. Finally, assuming it could provide the clear statement that this Court’s cases require, §2401(b)’s legislative history does not clearly demonstrate that Congress intended the pro- vision to impose a jurisdictional bar. Pp. 7–9.
(c) The Government’s two principal arguments for treating §2401(b) as jurisdictional are unpersuasive and foreclosed by this Court’s precedents. Pp. 9–17.
(1) The Government first points out that §2401(b) includes the
same “shall be forever barred” language as the statute of limitations
governing Tucker Act claims, which this Court has held to be juris-
dictional. See
, e.g.
,
Kendall
v.
United States
,
Syllabus
set a statutory deadline. Pp. 9–14.
(2) The Government next argues that §2401(b) is jurisdictional
because it is a condition on the FTCA’s waiver of sovereign immunity.
But that argument is foreclosed by , which considered an identi-
cal objection but concluded that even time limits that condition a
waiver of immunity may be equitably tolled. See
No. 13–1074, 732 F. 3d 1030, and No. 13–1075, 550 Fed. Appx. 505,
affirmed and remanded.
K AGAN , J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which K ENNEDY , G INSBURG , B REYER , and S OTOMAYOR , JJ., joined. A , J., filed a dis- senting opinion, in which R OBERTS , C. J., and S CALIA and T HOMAS , JJ., joined. *4 NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________ Nos. 13–1074 and 13–1075 _________________
UNITED STATES, PETITIONER
13–1074 v.
KWAI FUN WONG UNITED STATES, PETITIONER 13–1075 v.
MARLENE JUNE, CONSERVATOR
ON WRITS OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT [April 22, 2015] J USTICE K AGAN delivered the opinion of the Court. The Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA or Act) provides that a tort claim against the United States “shall be for- ever barred” unless it is presented to the “appropriate Fed- eral agency within two years after such claim accrues” and then brought to federal court “within six months” after the agency acts on the claim. 28 U. S. C. §2401(b). In each of the two cases we resolve here, the claimant missed one of those deadlines, but requested equitable tolling on the ground that she had a good reason for filing late. The Government responded that §2401(b)’s time limits are not subject to tolling because they are jurisdictional re- strictions. Today, we reject the Government’s argument and conclude that courts may toll both of the FTCA’s limitations periods.
I
In the first case, respondent Kwai Fun Wong asserts that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) falsely imprisoned her for five days in 1999. As the FTCA requires, Wong first presented that claim to the INS within two years of the alleged unlawful action. See §2401(b); §2675(a). The INS denied the administrative complaint on December 3, 2001. Under the Act, that gave Wong six months, until June 3, 2002, to bring her tort claim in federal court. See §2401(b).
Several months prior to the INS’s decision, Wong had filed suit in federal district court asserting various non - FTCA claims against the Government arising out of the same alleged misconduct. Anticipating the INS’s ruling, Wong moved in mid-November 2001 to amend the com- plaint in that suit by adding her tort claim. On April 5, 2002, a Magistrate Judge recommended granting Wong leave to amend. But the District Court did not finally adopt that proposal until June 25—three weeks after the FTCA’s 6-month deadline.
The Government moved to dismiss the tort claim on the ground that it was filed late. The District Court at first rejected the motion. It recognized that Wong had man- aged to add her FTCA claim only after §2401(b)’s 6-month time period had expired. But the court equitably tolled that period for all the time between the Magistrate Judge’s recommendation and its own order allowing amendment, thus bringing Wong’s FTCA claim within the statutory deadline. Several years later, the Government moved for reconsideration of that ruling based on an in- tervening Ninth Circuit decision. This time, the District Court dismissed Wong’s claim, reasoning that §2401(b)’s 6-month time bar was jurisdictional and therefore not subject to equitable tolling. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit agreed to hear the case en banc to address an intra-circuit conflict on the issue. The en banc court held that the 6- *6 month limit is not jurisdictional and that equitable tolling is available. Kwai Fun Wong Beebe , 732 F. 3d 1030 (2013). It then confirmed the District Court’s prior ruling that the circumstances here justify tolling because Wong “exercis[ed] due diligence” in attempting to amend her complaint before the statutory deadline. Id. , at 1052.
The second case before us arises from a deadly highway accident. Andrew Booth was killed in 2005 when a car in which he was riding crossed through a cable median bar- rier and crashed into oncoming traffic. The following year, respondent Marlene June, acting on behalf of Booth’s young son, filed a wrongful death action alleging that the State of Arizona and its contractor had negligently con- structed and maintained the median barrier. Years into that state-court litigation, June contends, she discovered that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) had approved installation of the barrier knowing it had not been properly crash tested.
Relying on that new information, June presented a tort claim to the FHWA in 2010, more than five years after the accident. The FHWA denied the claim, and June promptly filed this action in federal district court. The court dis- missed the suit because June had failed to submit her claim to the FHWA within two years of the collision. The FTCA’s 2-year bar, the court ruled, is jurisdictional and therefore not subject to equitable tolling; accordingly, the court did not consider June’s contention that tolling was proper because the Government had concealed its failure to require crash testing. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit reversed in light of its recent decision in Wong , thus hold- ing that §2401(b)’s 2-year deadline, like its 6-month coun- terpart, is not jurisdictional and may be tolled. 550 Fed. Appx. 505 (2013).
We granted certiorari in both cases, 573 U. S. ___ (2014), to resolve a circuit split about whether courts may equitably toll §2401(b)’s two time limits. Compare, e.g. , In *7 re FEMA Trailer Formaldehyde Prods. Liability Litiga- tion , 646 F. 3d 185, 190–191 (CA5 2011) ( per curiam ) (tolling not available), with Arteaga v. United States , 711 F. 3d 828, 832–833 (CA7 2013) (tolling allowed). [1] We now affirm the Court of Appeals’ rulings.
II
Irwin
v.
Department of Veterans Affairs
,
[1] Although we did not consolidate these cases, we address them to- gether because everyone agrees that the core arguments for and against equitable tolling apply equally to both of §2401(b)’s deadlines. See, e.g. , Brief for United States in June 15 (“Nothing in the text or relevant legislative history . . . suggests that the respective time bars should be interpreted differently with respect to whether they are jurisdictional or subject to equitable tolling”). *8 5
presumption “likely to be a realistic assessment of legisla- tive intent as well as a practically useful” rule of interpre- tation. Ibid .
A rebuttable presumption, of course, may be rebutted, so Irwin does not end the matter. When enacting a time bar for a suit against the Government (as for one against a private party), Congress may reverse the usual rule if it chooses. See id. , at 96. The Government may therefore attempt to establish, through evidence relating to a par- ticular statute of limitations, that Congress opted to forbid equitable tolling.
One way to meet that burden—and the way the Gov-
ernment pursues here—is to show that Congress made the
time bar at issue jurisdictional.
[2]
When that is so, a liti-
gant’s failure to comply with the bar deprives a court of all
authority to hear a case. Hence, a court must enforce the
limitation even if the other party has waived any timeli-
ness objection. See
Gonzalez
v.
Thaler
,
——————
[2] The Government notes, and we agree, that Congress may preclude
equitable tolling of even a nonjurisdictional statute of limitations. See
Brief for United States in
Wong
20;
Sebelius Auburn Regional Medi-
cal Center
,
[3] The dissent takes issue with the sequence in which we decide the
*9
Given those harsh consequences, the Government must
clear a high bar to establish that a statute of limitations is
jurisdictional. In recent years, we have repeatedly held
that procedural rules, including time bars, cabin a court’s
power only if Congress has “clearly state[d]” as much.
Sebelius
v.
Auburn Regional Medical Center
,
And in applying that clear statement rule, we have made plain that most time bars are nonjurisdictional. See, e.g. , id. , at ___ (slip op., at 8) (noting the rarity of jurisdictional time limits). Time and again, we have de- scribed filing deadlines as “quintessential claim-processing rules,” which “seek to promote the orderly progress of ——————
jurisdictional question, contending that we must do so prior to mention- ing Irwin ’s presumption. See post , at 11–12 (opinion of A , J.). We do not understand the point—or more precisely, why the dissent thinks the ordering matters. When Congress makes a time bar in a suit against the Government jurisdictional, one could say (as the dissent does) that Irwin does not apply, or one could say (as we do) that Irwin ’s presumption is conclusively rebutted. The bottom line is the same: Tolling is not available. We frame the inquiry as we do in part because that is how the Government presented the issue. See Brief for United States in Wong 19 (“One way to show that [ Irwin ’s presumption is rebutted] is to establish that the statutory time limit is a ‘jurisdictional’ restriction”). And we think that choice makes especially good sense in these cases because various aspects of ’s reasoning are central to considering the parties’ positions on whether §2401(b) is jurisdictional. See infra , at 12–17.
litigation,” but do not deprive a court of authority to hear a case. Henderson Shinseki , 562 U. S. 428, 435 (2011); see Auburn Regional , 568 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 8); Scarborough v. Principi , 541 U. S. 401, 413 (2004). That is so, contrary to the dissent’s suggestion, see post, at 4, 10–11, even when the time limit is important (most are) and even when it is framed in mandatory terms (again, most are); indeed, that is so “however emphatic[ally]” expressed those terms may be, Henderson , 562 U. S., at 439 (quoting Union Pacific R. Co. v. Locomotive Engineers , 558 U. S. 67, 81 (2009)). Congress must do something special, beyond setting an exception-free deadline, to tag a statute of limitations as jurisdictional and so prohibit a court from tolling it.
In enacting the FTCA, Congress did nothing of that kind. It provided no clear statement indicating that §2401(b) is the rare statute of limitations that can deprive a court of jurisdiction. Neither the text nor the context nor the legislative history indicates (much less does so plainly) that Congress meant to enact something other than a standard time bar.
Most important, §2401(b)’s text speaks only to a claim’s timeliness, not to a court’s power. It states that “[a] tort claim against the United States shall be forever barred unless it is presented [to the agency] within two years . . . or unless action is begun within six months” of the agen- cy’s denial of the claim. That is mundane statute-of- limitations language, saying only what every time bar, by definition, must: that after a certain time a claim is barred. See infra , at 11, n. 7 (citing many similarly worded limitations statutes). The language is mandatory— “shall” be barred—but (as just noted) that is true of most such statutes, and we have consistently found it of no consequence. See, e.g. , Gonzalez , 565 U. S., at ___–___ (slip op., at 10–11). Too, the language might be viewed as emphatic—“forever” barred—but (again) we have often *11 8
held that not to matter. See,
e.g.
,
Henderson
, 562 U. S., at
439;
Union Pacific
,
Statutory context confirms that reading. This Court has often explained that Congress’s separation of a filing deadline from a jurisdictional grant indicates that the time bar is not jurisdictional. See Henderson , 562 U. S., at 439–440; Reed Elsevier, Inc. Muchnick , 559 U. S. 154, 164–165 (2010); Arbaugh , 546 U. S., at 515; Zipes , 455 U. S., at 393–394. So too here. Whereas §2401(b) houses the FTCA’s time limitations, a different section of Title 28 confers power on federal district courts to hear FTCA claims. See §1346(b)(1) (“district courts . . . shall have exclusive jurisdiction” over tort claims against the United States). Nothing conditions the jurisdictional grant on the ——————
[4] The dissent argues that nonjurisdictional time limits typically men-
tion claimants, whereas §2401(b) does not. See
post
, at 10. But none of
our precedents have either said or suggested that such a difference
matters—that, for example, a statute barring a “tort claim” is jurisdic-
tional, but one barring a “person’s tort claim” is not. See,
e.g.
,
Zipes
,
limitations periods, or otherwise links those separate provisions. Treating §2401(b)’s time bars as jurisdictional would thus disregard the structural divide built into the statute.
Finally, even assuming legislative history alone could provide a clear statement (which we doubt), none does so here. The report accompanying the FTCA did not discuss whether §2401(b)’s time limits are jurisdictional. See S. Rep. No. 1400, 79th Cong., 2d Sess., 33 (1946). And in amending §2401(b) four times after its enactment, Con- gress declined again (four times over) to say anything specific about whether the statute of limitations imposes a jurisdictional bar. Congress thus failed to provide any- thing like the clear statement this Court has demanded before deeming a statute of limitations to curtail a court’s power.
And so we wind up back where we started, with ’s “general rule” that equitable tolling is available in suits against the Government. 498 U. S., at 95. The justifica- tion the Government offers for departing from that princi- ple fails: Section 2401(b) is not a jurisdictional require- ment. The time limits in the FTCA are just time limits, nothing more. Even though they govern litigation against the Government, a court can toll them on equitable grounds.
III
The Government balks at that straightforward analysis, claiming that it overlooks two reasons for thinking §2401(b) jurisdictional. But neither of those reasons is persuasive. Indeed, our precedents in this area foreclose them both.
A
The Government principally contends that §2401(b) is
jurisdictional because it includes the same language as the
*13
statute of limitations governing contract (and some other
non-tort) suits brought against the United States under
the Tucker Act. See §2501.
[5]
That statute long provided
that such suits “shall be forever barred” if not filed within
six years. Act of Mar. 3, 1863, §10, 12 Stat. 767; see Act of
Mar. 3, 1911, §156, 36 Stat. 1139.
[6]
And this Court repeat-
edly held that 6-year limit to be jurisdictional and thus not
subject to equitable tolling. See
Kendall
v.
United States
,
But the Government takes too much from Congress’s use in §2401(b) of an utterly unremarkable phrase. The “shall be forever barred” formulation was a commonplace in federal limitations statutes for many decades surround- ——————
[5] The Tucker Act of 1887, ch. 359, 24 Stat. 505, enlarged the Court of Claims’ jurisdiction over contract and other non-tort actions against the Government. The statute of limitations applying to such suits pre- dated the Tucker Act by more than two decades.
[6] During a recodification occurring in 1948 (two years after passage of the FTCA), Congress omitted the word “forever” from the Tucker Act’s statute of limitations; since then, it has provided simply that untimely claims “shall be barred.” 28 U. S. C. §2501; see §2501, 62 Stat. 976. No party contends that change makes any difference to the resolution of these cases.
ing Congress’s enactment of the FTCA.
[7]
And neither this
Court nor any other has accorded those words talismanic
power to render time bars jurisdictional. To the contrary,
we have construed the very same “shall be forever barred”
language in 15 U. S. C. §15b, the Clayton Act’s statute of
limitations, to be subject to tolling; nothing in that provi-
sion, we found, “restrict[s] the power of the federal courts”
to extend a limitations period when circumstances war-
rant.
American Pipe & Constr. Co. Utah
,
[7] See, e.g. , §6 of the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, 61 Stat. 87, 29 U. S. C. §255 (1952 ed.); §3 of the Automobile Dealers’ Day in Court Act, 70 Stat. 1125, 15 U. S. C. §1223 (1958 ed.); §111(b) of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, 80 Stat. 725, 15 U. S. C. §1400(b) (1970 ed.); §7(e) of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), 81 Stat. 605, 29 U. S. C. §626(e) (1970 ed.); §6(c) of the Agricultural Fair Practices Act of 1967, 82 Stat. 95, 7 U. S. C. §2305(c) (1970 ed.); §613(b) of the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, 88 Stat. 707, 42 U. S. C. §5412(b) (1976 ed.).
[8] Even before this Court’s decision in
American Pipe
, Courts of Ap-
peals had unanimously construed the Clayton Act’s statute of limita-
tions to allow equitable tolling. See
General Elec. Co.
v.
San Antonio
,
Indeed, in two decisions directly addressing the Tucker Act’s statute of limitations, this Court dismissed the idea that the language the Government relies on here has jurisdictional significance. Twice we described the words in that provision as not meaningfully different from those in a nonjurisdictional statute of limitations. And twice we made clear that the jurisdictional status of the Tucker Act’s time bar has precious little to do with its phrasing.
We first did so in Irwin . Using our newly minted pre- sumption, see supra , at 4–5, we decided there that the limitations period governing Title VII suits against the Government, 42 U. S. C. §2000e–16(c) (1988 ed.), allowed equitable tolling. In reaching that conclusion, we com- pared §2000e–16(c)’s text (then stating that an employee “may file a civil action” within 30 days of an agency’s denial of her claim) with the language of the Tucker Act’s time bar. We noted that we had formerly held the Tucker Act’s limitations statute to “jurisdictionally bar[ ]” late claims, and we acknowledged the possibility of justifying that different treatment by characterizing its “language [as] more stringent than” §2000e–16(c)’s. , 498 U. S., at 94–95. But we rejected that reasoning, instead finding that the two formulations were materially alike. “[W]e are ——————
1983); Callowhill Allen-Sherman-Hoff Co., 832 F. 2d 269, 273–274 (CA3 1987).
not persuaded,” we stated, “that the difference between them is enough to manifest a different congressional intent with respect to the availability of equitable tolling.” Id. , at 95. Leaving for another day the question of what did account for the jurisdictional status of the Tucker Act’s time bar, the Court thus ruled out reliance on its lan- guage. In other words, on the core question the Govern- ment raises here—whether the phrase “shall be forever barred,” as used in both the Tucker Act and the FTCA, manifests a congressional decision to preclude tolling— Irwin said no.
More recently,
John R. Sand
reaffirmed that conclusion,
even as it refused to overturn our century-old view that
the Tucker Act’s time bar is jurisdictional. No less than
three times,
John R. Sand
approvingly repeated ’s
statement that the textual differences between the Tucker
Act’s time bar and §2000e–16(c) were insignificant—
i.e.
,
that the language of the two provisions could not explain
why the former was jurisdictional and the latter not. See
The Government thus cannot show that the phrase “shall be forever barred” in §2401(b) plainly signifies a jurisdictional statute, as our decisions require. See supra , at 6–7. Unlike in John R. Sand , here stare decisis plays no role: We have not previously considered whether §2401(b) restricts a court’s authority. What we have done is to say, again and again, that the core language in that provision has no jurisdictional significance. It is materi- ally indistinguishable from the language in one nonjurisdic- tional time bar ( i.e. , §2000e–16(c)). See Irwin , 498 U. S., at 95; John R. Sand , 552 U. S., at 137, 139. And it is identical to the language in another ( i.e. , 15 U. S. C. §15b). See American Pipe , 414 U. S., at 559. Yes, we have held that the Tucker Act’s time bar, which includes those same words, constrains a court’s power to hear late claims. But as we explained in , that is not because the phrase itself “manifest[s] a . . . congressional intent with respect to the availability of equitable tolling.” 498 U. S., at 95. The words on which the Government pins its hopes are just the words of a limitations statute of a particular era. And nothing else supports the Government’s claim that Congress, when enacting the FTCA, wanted to incorporate this Court’s view of the Tucker Act’s time bar—much less that Congress expressed that purported intent with the needed clear statement.
B
The Government next contends that at the time of the FTCA’s enactment, Congress thought that every limita- tions statute applying to suits against the United States, however framed or worded, cut off a court’s jurisdiction over untimely claims. On that view, the particular lan- guage of those statutes makes no difference. All that matters is that such time limits function as conditions on the Government’s waiver of sovereign immunity. In that era—indeed, up until Irwin was decided—those conditions *18 were generally supposed to be “strictly observed.” So- riano , 352 U. S., at 276. That meant, the Government urges, that all time limits on actions against the United States “carr[ied] jurisdictional consequences.” Brief for United States in Wong 34. Accordingly, the Government concludes, Congress “would have expected courts to apply [§2401(b)] as a jurisdictional requirement—just as condi- tions on waivers of sovereign immunity had always been applied.” Id. , at 32.
Irwin
, however, forecloses that argument. After all,
Irwin
also considered a pre- time bar attached to a
waiver of sovereign immunity. The Government argued
there—anticipating its claim here—that because §2000e–
16(c)’s statute of limitations conditioned such a waiver, it
must be jurisdictional and not subject to equitable tolling.
See Brief for Respondents 6, 10, 14, 19, and Tr. of Oral
Arg. 31–37, in
Irwin
, O. T. 1990, No. 89–5867. But
Irwin
disagreed, applying the opposite presumption to a time
limit passed two decades earlier. See
In the years since, this Court has repeatedly followed
Irwin
’s lead. We have applied
Irwin
to pre-
Irwin
statutes,
just as we have to statutes that followed in that decision’s
wake. See
Scarborough
,
And the Government’s claim is peculiarly inapt as ap- plied to §2401(b) because all that is special about the FTCA cuts in favor of allowing equitable tolling. As com- pared to other waivers of immunity (prominently includ- ing the Tucker Act), the FTCA treats the United States more like a commoner than like the Crown. The FTCA’s jurisdictional provision states that courts may hear suits “under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant.” 28 U. S. C. §1346(b). And when defining substantive liability for *20 torts, the Act reiterates that the United States is account- able “in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual.” §2674. In keeping with those provi- sions, this Court has often rejected the Government’s calls to cabin the FTCA on the ground that it waives sovereign immunity—and indeed, the Court did so in the years immediately after the Act’s passage, even as it was con- struing other waivers of immunity narrowly. See, e.g. , United States v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. , 338 U. S. 366, 383 (1949); Indian Towing Co. v. United States , 350 U. S. 61, 65 (1955); Rayonier Inc. United States , 352 U. S. 315, 319–320 (1957). There is no reason to do differ- ently here. As Irwin recognized, treating the Government like a private person means (among other things) permit- ting equitable tolling. See 498 U. S., at 95–96. So in stressing the Government’s equivalence to a private party, the FTCA goes further than the typical statute waiving sovereign immunity to indicate that its time bar allows a court to hear late claims.
IV
Our precedents make this a clear-cut case.
Irwin
re-
quires an affirmative indication from Congress that it
intends to preclude equitable tolling in a suit against the
Government. See 498 U. S., at 95–96. Congress can
provide that signal by making a statute of limitations
jurisdictional. But that requires its own plain statement;
otherwise, we treat a time bar as a mere claims-processing
rule. See
Auburn Regional
,
We affirm the judgments of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and remand the cases for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. On remand in June , it is for the District Court to decide whether, on the facts of her case, June is entitled to equitable tolling.
It is so ordered.
A LITO , J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________ Nos. 13–1074 and 13–1075 _________________
UNITED STATES, PETITIONER
13–1074 v.
KWAI FUN WONG UNITED STATES, PETITIONER 13–1075 v.
MARLENE JUNE, CONSERVATOR
ON WRITS OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT [April 22, 2015] J USTICE A , with whom T HE C HIEF J USTICE , J USTICE S CALIA , and J USTICE T HOMAS join, dissenting.
Our task in these cases is to interpret and enforce a federal statute that specifies the limits of the waiver of sovereign immunity in the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The FTCA waives the immunity of the United States for certain tort claims but provides that any “tort claim against the United States shall be forever barred unless” it is filed with the appropriate agency “within two years after such claim accrues” and in federal court “within six months after” the agency’s final decision. 28 U. S. C. §2401(b). The statutory text, its historical roots, and more than a century of precedents show that this absolute bar is not subject to equitable tolling. I would enforce the statute as Congress intended and reverse.
I
The FTCA is a waiver of sovereign immunity and must be understood in that context. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Congress was reluctant to allow individual tort
A , J., dissenting claims against the United States. Instead, it granted relief to individuals through private laws enacted solely for those individuals’ benefit. These waivers of sovereign immunity were surgical and sporadic, but “notoriously clumsy,” and by 1946 Congress thought it better to adopt a “simplified” approach. Dalehite v. United States , 346 U. S. 15, 24–25 (1953). The FTCA thus waived sovereign im- munity for tort claims against the Government and set out a procedure for adjudicating those claims.
This waiver of sovereign immunity was no trivial mat- ter. Long before the FTCA, Congress authorized suits against the Government for contract and property claims under the Tucker Act and a number of predecessor stat- utes, but the Tucker Act excluded tort claims from its waiver of sovereign immunity. The concern was obvious: As opposed to the more predictable nature of contractual and property claims, tort-based harms are sometimes unperceived and open-ended. Even frivolous claims re- quire the Federal Government to expend administrative and litigation costs, which ultimately fall upon society at- large. For every dollar spent to defend against or to sat- isfy a tort claim against the United States, the Government must either raise taxes or shift funds originally allocated to different public programs.
To reduce these risks, Congress placed strict limits on
the FTCA’s waiver of sovereign immunity. The statute
“exempts from [its] waiver certain categories of claims,”
Ali Federal Bureau of Prisons
,
A , J., dissenting such as prejudgment interest and punitive damages. See §2674.
Most relevant here, the FTCA “condition[s]” its waiver
of sovereign immunity on strict filing deadlines.
United
States Kubrick
,
“A tort claim against the United States shall be for- ever barred unless it is presented in writing to the appropriate Federal agency within two years after such claim accrues or unless action is begun within six months after the date of mailing, by certified or registered mail, of notice of final denial of the claim by the agency to which it was presented.” 28 U. S. C. §2401(b).
II
The question presented in these two cases is whether the FTCA’s filing deadlines are subject to equitable tolling. We must therefore decide (1) whether the deadlines are “jurisdictional” in nature, so that courts are without power to adjudicate claims filed outside their strict limits and (2) if they are not jurisdictional, whether the statute nonethe- less prohibits equitable tolling. Both of these inquiries require close attention to the text, context, and history of the Act. And both lead to the conclusion that the FTCA allows no equitable tolling.
A , J., dissenting
A
The FTCA’s filing deadlines are jurisdictional. The statute’s plain text prohibits adjudication of untimely claims. Once the Act’s filing deadlines have run, all un- timely claims “shall be forever barred.” Ibid. These words are not qualified or aspirational. They are absolute. If not filed with the agency within two years, or with a federal court within six months, a claim “shall be” “barred” “for- ever.” “Shall be forever barred” is not generally understood to mean “should be allowed sometimes.” The statute brooks no exceptions. And because the filing deadlines restrict the FTCA’s waiver of sovereign immunity, they impose a limit on the courts’ jurisdiction that “we should not take it upon ourselves to extend.” Kubrick , supra , at 117–118.
For over 130 years, we have understood these terms as jurisdictional. When crafting the FTCA’s limitations provision, Congress did not write on a clean slate. Rather, it borrowed language from limitations provisions in the Tucker Act and its predecessor statutes. The 1911 version of the Tucker Act included language that was nearly identical to that in the 1946 version of the FTCA: “Every claim against the United States cognizable by the Court of Claims, shall be forever barred unless the petition setting forth a statement thereof is filed in the court . . . within six years after the claim first accrues.” §156, 36 Stat. 1139. That statutory language came, in turn, from the 1863 predecessor to the Tucker Act. See §10, 12 Stat. 767.
As early as 1883, we interpreted these precise terms to impose a “jurisdiction[al]” requirement that the “court may not disregard.” Kendall United States , 107 U. S. 123, 125. We emphasized that, when waiving sovereign immunity, Congress “may restrict the jurisdiction of the [courts] to certain classes of demands.” Ibid. And we held that “[t]he express words of the statute leave no room for contention.” Ibid. The Court thus had no “authority to *26 5
A , J., dissenting engraft” an equitable tolling provision where Congress had so clearly constrained the judiciary’s authority. Ibid.
Over the ensuing decades, we repeatedly reaffirmed our
interpretation of the phrase. In
Finn
v.
United States
, 123
U. S. 227, 232 (1887), we held that the Government could
not waive the jurisdictional time bar and thus that the
“duty of the court” was “to dismiss the petition” when a
plaintiff raised an untimely claim. We reached the same
conclusion in
De Arnaud
v.
United States
, 151 U. S. 483,
495–496 (1894). We reaffirmed the rule in
United States
v.
New York
,
The FTCA’s statutory terms must be understood in this context. When Congress crafted the FTCA as a tort-based ——————
[1] At times in the past we have too loosely conferred the “jurisdic- tional” label. See Steel Co. Citizens for Better Environment , 523 U. S. 83, 90 (1998). But our use of the term in this context was conscious, as we recognized in John R. Sand & Gravel Co. v. United States , 552 U. S. 130, 134 (2008) (“Justice Harlan, writing for the Court, said the statute was ‘jurisdiction[al],’ . . . and that ‘ it [was] the duty of the court to raise the [timeliness] question whether it [was] done by plea or not ’ ” (quoting Kendall United States , 107 U. S. 123, 125 (1883))). And it was correct.
6
A , J., dissenting
analogue to the Tucker Act, it consciously borrowed the
well-known wording of the Tucker Act’s filing deadline.
Then, as now, it was settled that “[i]n adopting the lan-
guage used in an earlier act, Congress must be considered
to have adopted also the construction given by this Court
to such language, and made it a part of the enactment.”
Hecht Malley
, 265 U. S. 144, 153 (1924); see also
Shapiro United States
,
Indeed, Congress considered departing from the Tucker Act’s prohibition on equitable tolling, but decided against it. Proposals to include an equitable tolling provision were “included in nine of the thirty-one bills prior to the enact- ment of the FTCA,” but “the Act passed by the 1946 Con- gress did not provide for any equitable tolling of the limi- tations periods.” Colella & Bain, Revisiting Equitable Tolling and the Federal Tort Claims Act, 31 Seton Hall L. Rev. 174, 195–196 (2000). Instead, it was understood that individuals with claims outside those deadlines could turn to Congress for relief through private bills, as they did before the FTCA’s enactment. See id., at 195. ——————
[2] Congress has occasionally modified the FTCA’s limitations provi- sion. Initially, the Act required plaintiffs to file suit within one year of a claim’s accrual, or if the claim was for less than $1,000 to present the claim to the appropriate agency within one year of accrual. FTCA §420, 60 Stat. 845. In 1949, to relieve the hardship of the 1-year deadline, Congress enlarged the filing deadline to two years. Act of Apr. 25, ch. 92, §1, 63 Stat. 62. Then, in 1966, it made the filing of an administra- tive claim with the appropriate agency a prerequisite to filing suit, and it shortened the litigation filing deadline to six months from the agen- cy’s denial of the claim. Act of July 18, §§2(a), 7, 80 Stat. 306, 307. But Congress has never suggested that the deadlines could be excused or
A , J., dissenting
The evidence of statutory meaning does not end there.
We reaffirmed the phase’s jurisdictional nature in the
decades following the FTCA’s enactment. In
Soriano
v.
United States
,
The lower courts also quickly recognized the statutes’
common heritage and enforced §2401(b) as a jurisdictional
requirement. In
Anderegg United States
,
enlarged by the courts.
A , J., dissenting
backdrop of
Soriano
and the lower courts’ interpretation of
the phrase. We must therefore assume that Congress
meant to keep the universally recognized meaning of those
words. See,
e.g., General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc.
v.
Cline
,
That meaning, of course, cannot change over time. But
even if there were any doubt, we recently reaffirmed our
view in
John R. Sand & Gravel Co.
v.
United States
, 552
U. S. 130 (2008). We explained that, unlike run-of-the-
mill statutes of limitation, jurisdictional time limits “seek
. . . to achieve a broader system-related goal, such as
facilitating the administration of claims, limiting the scope
of a governmental waiver of sovereign immunity, or pro-
moting judicial efficiency.”
Id.
, at 133 (citations omitted).
Recounting our decisions in
Kendall
,
Finn
,
De Arnaud
,
New York
, and
Soriano
, we “reiterated” our understanding
of the “absolute nature of the court of claims limitations
statute.”
The same must be said of the FTCA. As we have often
explained, “[w]hen a long line of this Court’s decisions left
undisturbed by Congress has treated a similar require-
ment as ‘jurisdictional,’ we will presume that Congress
intended to follow that course.”
Henderson Shinseki
,
562 U. S. 428, 436 (2011) (citation and some internal
quotation marks omitted);
Reed Elsevier, Inc. Muchnick
,
A , J., dissenting
B
Even if the FTCA’s filing deadlines are not jurisdic-
tional, they still prohibit equitable tolling. To be sure, in
recent years, we have grown reluctant to affix the “juris-
dictional” label. See,
e.g., Arbaugh Y & H Corp.
, 546
U. S. 500, 510 (2006);
Henderson
,
supra,
at 434–436. “But
calling a rule nonjurisdictional does not mean that it is not
mandatory.”
Gonzalez
v.
Thaler
,
Here, Congress’ intent is clear. The words of the statute leave no doubt that untimely claims are never allowed: They are “ forever barred.” This is no weak-kneed com- mand. The history underlying the text only bolsters its apparent meaning, and our repeated reaffirmation of the phrase’s meaning should remove any doubt. Congress never meant for equitable tolling to be available under the FTCA.
The only factor pointing in the opposite direction is our suggestion in Irwin v. Department of Veterans Affairs , 498 U. S. 89, 95–96 (1990), that we would thenceforth apply a rebuttable presumption in favor of equitable tolling in suits against the Government. But it is beyond me how Irwin ’s judge-made presumption announced in 1990 can trump the obvious meaning of a statute enacted many decades earlier. Cf. Cannon University of Chicago , 441 U. S. 677, 718 (1979) (Rehnquist, J., concurring). In any event, ’s rebuttable presumption is overcome in this case. For well over a century, we have recognized the inflexible nature of the Tucker Act’s provision. Since its adoption, we have recognized that the FTCA’s language bears the same meaning as its Tucker Act companion. See Soriano , supra , at 275; Kubrick , supra , at 118. And in John R. Sand & Gravel , we held that our “definitive ear-
A , J., dissenting
lier interpretation of the” Tucker Act is a “sufficient rebut-
tal” to
Irwin
’s presumption.
III
The Court’s contrary conclusion is wrong at every step.
In its view, §2401(b)’s statutory text is “mundane” lan-
guage that “ ‘reads like an ordinary, run-of-the-mill statute
of limitations.’ ”
Ante,
at 8. But “ordinary” nonjurisdic-
tional time limits are typically directed at claimants. The
deadline in
Henderson
, for example, required that “
a
person
adversely affected by [a Board of Veterans’ Ap-
peals] decision shall file a notice of appeal . . . within 120
days after” the decision. 38 U. S. C. §7266(a) (emphasis
added); 562 U. S, at 438. The “run-of-the-mill” limitations
provision in
Holland
v.
Florida
,
Section 2401(b), by contrast, never mentions the claim- ant, and it is phrased in emphatically absolute terms. It says unequivocally that untimely tort claims against the United States “shall be forever barred.” Although it does not use the word “jurisdiction,” it speaks at least as much to the courts (who are “forever barred” from considering untimely claims) as it does to claimants (who are “forever *32 11
A , J., dissenting barred” from bringing stale claims). More important, though, the words in §2401(b) have a well-known meaning that ipse dixit labels cannot overcome.
The majority tells us this “old ‘ad hoc,’ law-by-law ap- proach”—also known as statutory interpretation —has been replaced with a broad presumption in favor of equitable tolling and a judicial preference against jurisdictional labels. Ante, at 4. I dispute the premise. But in any event, as I explained above, and as six Members of the current Court held in John R. Sand & Gravel , the over- whelming evidence of congressional intent here easily overtakes Irwin ’s rebuttable presumption. Even if we would rather not call §2401(b)’s deadlines “jurisdictional,” with all that label entails, we must nonetheless recognize that Congress never meant to allow equitable tolling.
The majority avoids this latter point by declining to give it any separate attention. See ante, at 5, n. 2. But we cannot conflate the two questions because, though the relevant evidence is the same, the analysis is different. In particular, the majority is wrong to rely on Irwin when assessing the jurisdictional question, which is the only question it really decides. We do not indulge Irwin ’s pre- sumption when determining whether a requirement is jurisdictional. Instead, we typically invoke Irwin only after finding that a requirement is not jurisdictional, to decide whether Congress nonetheless intended to prohibit equitable tolling. In Henderson , for instance, we never mentioned because the parties did not ask us to ——————
[3] The majority relies on the fact that we have allowed equitable toll- ing under “forever barred” language in the Clayton Act. See ante, at 10. But there is no evidence that Congress meant to import that statute’s terms into the FTCA. Nor does the Clayton Act involve the waiver of sovereign immunity for money damages against the Government. The Tucker Act, by contrast, was clearly the blueprint for the FTCA’s time bar, it did involve a waiver of sovereign immunity, and our cases have uniformly held that its language is not subject to equitable tolling.
A , J., dissenting address whether the rule was “subject to equitable tolling if it [was] not jurisdictional.” 562 U. S., at 442, n. 4. Likewise, in Bowles Russell , 551 U. S. 205 (2007), we held that the deadline for filing a notice of appeal is juris- dictional, without a word about Irwin . [4] In Sebelius v. Auburn Regional Medical Center , 568 U. S. ___, ___–___, ___–___, (2013) (slip op., at 6–7, 11–13), we considered Irwin only after deciding that a deadline was not jurisdic- tional. And in Holland , we held that the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996’s time limits are not jurisdictional, without relying on Irwin , and then stated that “[w]e have previously made clear that a nonju- risdictional federal statute of limitations is normally subject to a ‘rebuttable presumption’ in favor ‘of equitable tolling.’ ” 560 U. S., at 645–646 (quoting Irwin , supra , at 95–96) (emphasis deleted); cf. Young United States , 535 U. S. 43, 49–50 (2002) (invoking Irwin after concluding that a limitations period was not a “substantive” compo- nent of the Bankruptcy Code). [5] This error matters be- cause the majority’s jurisdictional analysis literally begins and ends with Irwin , see ante, at 4–5, 18, and thus relies on a presumption that should have no bearing on the question. Without that presumption, the majority could not so readily ignore the unmistakable evidence that §2401(b)’s limits are jurisdictional.
* * *
For these reasons, I would hold that §2401(b) does not allow equitable tolling, and I therefore respectfully dissent. ——————
[4] Even the dissent in
Bowles
recognized
Irwin
’s irrelevance: It cited
statutes of limitations.