Juanito Timoni, Appellant, v. United States of America, Appellee, 419 F.2d 294 (D.C. Cir. 1969)

This is an appeal from a judgment in an action wherein appellant, a national and resident of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, sought benefits under the National Service Life Insurance Act of 1940.¹  Julio T. Timoni served in the Philippine Army during World War II²  under circumstances affording him gratuitous, or automatic, life insurance coverage as provided by the Act,³  and died while that insurance was in force. Appellant, claiming as the serviceman's son⁴  and principal beneficiary,⁵  submitted to the Veterans' Administration⁶  a request for payment which was ultimately denied⁷  and thereafter filed suit in the District Court.⁸  The Government moved for dismissal on the ground, inter alia, that it appeared from the face of the complaint that the action came too late.⁹  The court, accepting this view, granted the motion and dismissed the action.¹⁰  We reverse that ruling and remand the case to the District Court for further proceedings.¹¹ 

* During World War II, gratuitous life insurance was provided statutorily, without need for application or charge for premiums, for certain servicemen who, because of the precipitance of the war or the demands of the service, lacked normal opportunities to contract with the Government for life insurance protection.¹²  Claims for benefits were required to be submitted to the Veterans' Administration for administrative adjudication, and a denial of the claim was made a condition precedent to suit.¹³  The period within which a claim could be filed with the Administration was fixed at seven years,¹⁴  with the proviso " [t]hat persons shown by evidence satisfactory to the Administrator to have been mentally or legally incompetent at the time the right to apply for * * * death benefits expires, may make such application at any time within one year after the removal of such disability."¹⁵ 

Limitation of actions on claims related to National Service Life Insurance is likewise a matter of federal law.¹⁶  The general statutory limitation is "six years after the right accrued for which the claim is made,"¹⁷  and it is "deemed that the right accrued on the happening of the contingency on which the claim is founded."¹⁸  However, the statute continues, " [t]he limitation of six years is suspended for the period elapsing between the filing in the Veterans' Administration of the claim sued upon¹⁹  and the denial of such claim: Provided, That in any case in which a claim is timely filed the claimant shall have not less than ninety days from the date of mailing of notice of denial within which to file suit."²⁰  And importantly to this litigation, the statute further specifies that " [i]nfants, insane persons, or persons under other legal disability, or persons rated as incompetent or insane by the Veterans' Administration shall have three years in which to bring suit after the removal of their disabilities."²¹ 

Julio T. Timoni, the insured, died on September 20, 1942. From appellant's allegation that he was born on April 25, 1942,²²  it follows that he attained majority on April 25, 1963. His claim for benefits, he says, was filed with the Veterans' Administration on March 30, 1964,²³  within a year after he reached the age of 21, and was denied on March 21, 1966.²⁴  The action in the District Court was filed on September 6, 1967, slightly more than three years and four months after appellant reached that age.

Appellant maintains that Congress intended that the three-year limitation should be tolled while a claim is under consideration by the Veterans' Administration. Thus, he urges, by eliminating from the computation the nearly two years during which his claim was pending before the Administration, the elapsed time since his 21st birthday was only about a year. The Government, on the other hand, contends that the statute permits but three periods for bringing suit: (1) six years from the date of the insured's death, (2) 90 days from the date of administrative denial of a claim, and (3) in the case of a minor, three years from the date he reaches majority. The Government argues further that the three-year period is not suspended during the pendency of the claim before the Veterans' Administration. These are the conflicting contentions we investigate on this appeal.²⁵ 

It is evident that appellant's action in the District Court came well outside the general six-year limitation. That period commenced when "the right accrued for which the claim is made,"²⁶  and by statute "the right accrued on the happening of the contingency on which the claim is founded."²⁷  These specifications have been uniformly construed to mean that the right to sue for gratuitous National Service Life Insurance arises upon the death of the insured serviceman.²⁸  Even with the addition of the time during which administrative consideration of appellant's claim extended, his suit can derive nothing from the six-year provision.

Nor are we able to accept the Government's suggestion that an action instituted by appellant within 90 days after administrative rejection of his claim would have met the language of the statute.²⁹  The 90-day stipulation made its appearance in federal legislation in 1936³⁰  as a proviso to the suspension of " [t]he limitation of six years"³¹  for the duration of the administrative proceeding, and that character it has retained until today.³²  The courts have recognized that its purpose is to protect claimants who present their claims to the Veterans' Administration at a point so near the close of six years as to leave the period remaining after administrative denial so short as to jeopardize a timely filing in court.³³  The congressional solution for such situations was a minimum 90-day period for suit after administrative denial, and both in language and aim the 90-day period is associated only with the general six-year limitation. So far as the terms of the Act are concerned, that period has nothing to do with the three-year saving provision.³⁴ 

The Government's position on the latter provision is bottomed on the literal language of the statute. The term of administrative pendency is expressly excluded from the general six-year period³⁵  but, the Government points out, the three-year saving provision contains no comparable exclusion.³⁶  Therefore, the argument goes, the three-year period begins to run upon the minor claimant's attainment of majority and continues unabatedly until expiration. This is so, says the Government, because no other result is explicated by the statute, and the statute, it adds, should be strictly construed.

We are persuaded, however, that our approach to the problem at hand must differ from the technique utilized by the Government. "The basic question to be answered in determining whether, under a given set of facts, a statute of limitations is to be tolled, is one `of legislative intent whether the right shall be enforceable * * * after the prescribed time'"³⁷  — "the basic inquiry is whether congressional purpose is effectuated by tolling the statute of limitations in given circumstances."³⁸  And " [i]n order to determine congressional intent, we must examine the purposes and policies underlying the limitation provision, the Act itself, and the remedial scheme developed for the enforcement of rights given by the Act."³⁹  We have searched diligently into the legislative history of the time limitations specified in the Act, and we find it inconclusive on the issue before us. Our task in this case, then, is to penetrate beneath the face of the statute to ascertain whether a tolling of the three-year period during the administrative proceeding, "effectuates the basic congressional purposes in enacting this humane and remedial Act, as well as those policies embodied in the Act's limitation provision * * *."⁴⁰ 

III

In embarking upon this quest, we must, of course, consider and attach due significance to the language Congress chose to use, for the most facile vehicle of expression remains the written word. But statutory words may or may not serve that function well; words alone cannot always be depended upon to convey objectives accurately. The Supreme Court has "repeatedly warned against the dangers of an approach to statutory construction which confines itself to the bare words of a statute, * * * for `literalness may strangle meaning.'"⁴¹  This is particularly so where, as here, it is an implication from what is written, rather than an explicit command, that supposedly furnishes the guide for judicial action. As we conceive our mission, it is to probe deeply in an effort to determine whether the words really mean what at best they only weakly appear to say.

Nor can we accept the Government's suggestion that an acceptable assessment of legislative purpose can be made by the simple expedient of measuring the statute by a canon of strict construction. Congress may, of course, specify the conditions upon which sovereign immunity is waived, and within constitutional bounds may grant or withhold the right of suit against the Government on terms according its view of the public weal.⁴²  We realize, too, that every class of litigation permitted against the Government derogates just to that extent from its general immunity, a circumstance having some tendency to indicate that perhaps an exception to the law as written was not desired.⁴³  Yet express congressional consent to suit is not a sine qua non of the tolling of a statute of limitations affecting suits against the Government,⁴⁴  and here, as in other situations, the question is ultimately one of legislative intent.⁴⁵  Our endeavor in this case is to ascertain what the intent as to the statute under consideration actually was.

We start with recognition of the well understood purpose the gratuitous insurance provision was designed to achieve. A modest amount of life insurance was to be afforded, governmentally and automatically, to those so circumstanced in the service of their country that it was unlikely that they could provide for themselves.⁴⁶  "The provision for gratuitous insurance," we have said, "was generous legislation, plainly adopted for humane and patriotic reasons."⁴⁷  In common with other courts,⁴⁸  we have interpreted that provision with a view to preserving the values Congress deemed basic to the legislation.⁴⁹  It would be entirely out of character for a court charged with responsibility of actualizing legislative mandates to forget or forsake the wholesome objectives the legislature had in mind.

The protection of underaged beneficiaries of National Service Life Insurance, many in far distant lands, was obviously a special concern of the lawmakers. Saving provisions, as to both administrative and judicial remedies, were prescribed by the Act,⁵⁰  in both instances affording protection by enlarging the time within which the remedy might be invoked for a term beyond the beneficiary's minority. While it has been held that after administrative rejection of a minor's claim his guardian may, notwithstanding the three-year saving provision, bring an action during the ward's minority,⁵¹  it is a notorious fact of human experience, reflected in federal and state legislation abounding the Nation, that far too many minors have nobody upon whom they can depend to look out for their interests. We think the saving provisions of the Act favoring minors represent a congressional judgment that minors are not to be counted on to do much litigating, administratively or judicially, during minority. We take them, too, as a judgment that the full periods of time respectively specified are vital to the protection Congress intended to afford.

IV

Perhaps the most striking consequence of adopting the Government's position is the resulting need to cram the administrative proceeding within the three-year interval between the minor's arrival at majority and the point at which his lawsuit becomes barred. That the administrative remedy must be invoked and the administrative proceeding must run its course are indispensable prerequisites to suit.⁵²  At the same time, as the decisions reveal, the duration of a claim proceeding before the Veterans' Administration may be long indeed⁵³  — oft-times longer than the three-year period.⁵⁴  Thus, the construction for which the Government contends is accompanied by the specter that the three years will prove to be too short.

Courts have often recognized legislatively unarticulated exceptions to limitation periods arising from the necessities of the situation. A rather common form of necessity for the implication of an exception is where a party is effectively prevented from exercising his right to sue. Injunction or other legal bar against the exercise,⁵⁵  fraudulent concealment of facts generating the cause of action,⁵⁶  and the disruptions of war⁵⁷  are but some of the more familiar examples. The courts have also recognized that a requirement of administrative proceedings prior to accrual of a right to sue may generate either a delay in the commencement or a tolling of the limitation period for such time as the administrative proceeding consumes.⁵⁸  A conspicuous example is Crown Coat Front Company v. United States,⁵⁹  wherein the Supreme Court held that the right of action on a contractor's claim subject to prior administrative proceedings pursuant to the disputes clause in a Government contract did not accrue until the administrative action was final. A consideration prominent in the Court's decision was the circumstance that the administrative proceedings might endure beyond the applicable limitation period:

To hold that the six-year time period runs from the completion of the contract, as the Government insists, would have unfortunate impact. The contractor is compelled to resort to administrative proceedings which may be protracted and which may last not only beyond the completion of the contract but continue for more than six years thereafter. If the time bar starts running from the completion date, the contractor could thus be barred from the courts by the time his administrative appeal is finally decided. This would be true whether he wins or loses before the board of appeals. Even if he prevailed there and was granted the equitable adjustment he sought, the Government would be immune from suit to enforce the award if more than six years had passed since the completion of the contract. This is not an appealing result, nor in our view, one that Congress intended.⁶⁰ 

We find it hard to believe that a legislative body that over the years has manifested a solicitous concern for judicial as well as administrative scrutiny of insurance claims would invite jeopardy by stinting on time provisions for either. We encounter equal difficulty with any assumption that Congress intended to impose on those who are newly emancipated from legal disabilities more onerous and stringent time requirements for litigating than upon those who at all relevant times were completely free from legally disabling handicaps. Rather, we accept the three-year saving provision for minors as an expression of congressional will that the three-year period is not to be whittled down. And since Congress made it plain that administrative proceedings must precede judicial proceedings, we think it highly likely that Congress intended that the exigencies of neither would encroach upon those of the other.

We are advertent to the consideration that statutes of limitation are statutes of repose calculated to comfort potential defendants — in this case the Government. "This policy of repose, designed to protect defendants, is frequently outweighed, however, where the interests of justice require vindication of the plaintiff's rights."⁶¹  We think, on balance of the competing factors, that the policy is outweighed by stronger indications of congressional intent to afford appellant the opportunity for three full years, exclusive of the period of its administrative consideration, to test his claim in court, and that any other reading of the Act would be inconsistent with its purposes. We hold that the three-year period was tolled when appellant filed his claim with the Veterans' Administration on March 30, 1964, and did not resume until it was denied on March 21, 1966. By this measure, appellant's suit in the District Court was timely, and he is entitled to have it heard.

The judgment appealed from is accordingly reversed and the case is remanded to the District Court for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.⁶² 

Reversed.

Circuit Judge BURGER did not participate in the foregoing opinion.