Michael Alan Avril and Gloria Melanie McMullen v. United States

Appellants brought suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act for damages allegedly sustained when a Post Office vehicle negligently collided with a motorcycle owned and driven by Avril on which McMullen was a passenger. Their amended complaint, which is the one before us, alleges the filing by each of claims under 28 U.S.C. § 2675 (a) with officials of the then Post Office Department and the expiration of six months without action thereon.

Copies of the claims as filed on Standard Form 95 were brought before the court below on defendant’s request for admissions. In each case a space on the form entitled “Amount of Claim” was left blank. This omission was called to appellants’ attention by the Department, but the forms were left unchanged in this respect.

Defendant moved to dismiss the action on the ground that since the claims did not state the money damages claimed in a sum certain they were fatally defective and therefore the action was precluded by § 2675(a). The court below agreed, granted the motion and dismissed the action.

28 C.F.R. § 14.2 , a general provision on filing claims, provides:

39 C.F.R. § 912.5 , specifically applying to claims involving the Post Office…