Skwira Ex Rel. Estate of Skwira v. United States

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

In unusual and tragic circumstances, this case requires us to apply a “discovery rule” to the issue of claim accrual under the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b), 2671-2680.

I

On February 15, 1996, Edward Skwira, a decorated World War II veteran, entered the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (“VAMC”) near Northampton, Massachusetts, for the treatment of chronic alcoholism. Three days later, Skwira unexpectedly died, apparently of natural causes. Five years later, on March 14, 2001, a federal jury convicted Kristin Gilbert, a former nurse at the VAMC, of…