Santiago Martinez, Et Ux v. United States

OPINION

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

We affirm a plaintiff’s judgment under the Federal Tort Claims Act except insofar as we must modify the judgment to limit recovery to the amount of the plaintiff’s previous administrative claim. We reject plaintiff’s argument that the relevant law regarding consideration of inflation in the calculation of damages had changed between the filing of the administrative claim and trial of the lawsuit, and we therefore reject his contention that amendment of the ad damnum clause was properly allowed at trial.

I

Early on the morning of March 27, 1977,…