United States: Injured Federal Worker’s Action under Tort Claims Act Barred by Exclusivity

A Department of Commerce employee, who sustained serious injuries when she was struck by a car as she crossed the street after picking up mail from another federal building, may not maintain a civil action for negligence against the federal government (the driver of the vehicle was an employee of the Federal Protective Service) under the Federal Tort Claims Act, held a federal district court. The plaintiff’s action is barred because she recovered benefits under the Federal Employees Compensation Act. The district court noted that the court lacked jurisdiction even if the Secretary of Labor incorrectly determined that FECA covered plaintiff’s claim.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Barnes v. United States, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 523 (D.C., Jan. 3, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 100.03.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law