• 27
  • May
    2011

A while back, we noted on this blog that the U.S. Supreme Court was considering whether to consider a case challenging a federal law that prevents military members from filing medical liability lawsuits against military medical personnel.

That law, known as the Feres Doctrine, was the result of a 1950 Supreme Court ruling concerning the interpretation of the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, which allowed plaintiffs to sue the government for negligence only in certain situations. Feres v. United States extended the exclusions of the Federal Tort Claims Act to apply to injuries "incident to military service."

The Feres Doctrine will now, however, be reconsidered by the Supreme Court in June in a case involving an Air force Staff Sergeant, whose death his family claims was due to the carelessness of military medical personnel. According to his family, the Sgt. was admitted to a military medical center in California for a routine appendectomy back in 2003. Following that surgery, he was allegedly left in the care of student nurses who made a series of medical mistakes leading to serious brain damage. The Sgt. died in 2004 when his family removed his life support.

There case was dismissed at trial based on the Feres Doctrine. Because the Sgt. was an active duty serviceman who was being cared for by the military health system, the doctrine was ruled to apply. But while the trial court dismissed the case, it also criticized the Feres Doctrine, saying that it has been applied to a "range of situations that seem far removed from the doctrine's original purposes."

If the Doctrine is reversed, experts say the federal government may be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps more, in medical liability claims.

Source: amednews.com, "Rule shielding military doctors from liability faces legal battle," Alicia Gallegos, 23 May 2011.