• 20
  • July
    2011

A while back on this blog, we wrote that the U.S. Supreme Court was considering whether to hear a case challenged the military's 61-year-old "Feres Doctrine," a legal precedent which prevents military members from filing medical liability lawsuits against military medical personnel.

At the end of June, the high court announced that it would not be hearing the case. The decision may make it more difficult to challenge the law in the future.

The case which sought to challenge the doctrine involved an Air force Staff Sergeant who was admitted to a military medical center in California for a routine appendectomy back in 2003. After his surgery, he was allegedly left in the care of student nurses whose medical mistakes caused him to suffer serious brain damage. The Sgt. died in 2004 when his family removed his life support. death his family claims was due to the carelessness of military medical personnel.

The family's case was dismissed at trial because of the Feres Doctrine, which was held to apply since the Sgt. was an active duty serviceman who was cared for by the military health system. Ironically, though, the trial court dismissed the case with a criticism that the Feres Doctrine has historically been applied to a "range of situations that seem far removed from the doctrine's original purposes."

In any case, legal experts are now saying that the best opportunity for changing the law will have to be in Congress. In or next post we'll continue looking at this story.

Source: Stars and Stripes, "Supreme Court deals devastating blow to Feres Doctrine," Leo Shane III, 27 June 2011.