Betty Jean Brown, a Minor, by Owen Walter Brown, Her Guardian Ad Litem, and Owen Walter Brown v. United States

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of the defendant below, the United States of America. By stipulation of the parties the sole issue in a separate trial was whether the appellants’ claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346 , were barred by the two-year limitations period specified for such actions in 28 U.S.C. § 2401 (b). The District Court held that the action was barred. We agree.

Betty Jean Brown, a minor, was born prematurely on February 21, 1955, in the United States Naval Hospital at Corpus Christi, Texas. Weighing only one pound ten ounces at birth, the infant was placed in an incubator, and oxygen was administered to save her life. The lifesaving oxygen was heavily administered, and when Betty was released from the hospital on May 5,1955, her parents were told that her vision would be impaired because of its use. In 1956 Betty, was taken by her parents to the United States Naval Hospital at Bethesda, Maryland, where the parents were told that Betty was totally blind, suffering from retrolental fibroplasia, and that in all likelihood, the affliction was permanent. They were also told that the blindness was due to the use of oxygen after her…