Jamie Kay Edgar v. HHS - other (1993)

A petition was filed on August 1, 1990, on behalf of Jamie Kay Edgar. Respondent conceded entitlement at an early stage, and all subsequent proceedings concerned the amount of compensation.

The damages phase was protracted, spanning multiple decisions at three levels and two appeals to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The first special master issued a damages decision on August 23, 1991, awarding compensation for future medical expenses through an annuity but leaving pain and suffering and lost wages to be determined.

That special master then left government service and the case was reassigned. The second special master's decision of October 24, 1991, awarded both the annuity for future medical expenses and a lump sum for pain and suffering and lost earnings.

Both parties sought review; this court's April 28, 1992, decision upheld the compensation awards and added past unreimbursed expenditures on petitioners' request. The corrected judgment of April 29, 1992, set out all components of the award.

Petitioners then appealed the lost earnings component to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. On March 11, 1993, the Federal Circuit decided in petitioners' favor, vacating the portion of the judgment awarding $127,048 for lost earnings and ordering entry of judgment for $254,886.35.

Respondent's petition for rehearing was denied on May 25, 1993. The June 3, 1993, amended judgment increased the lump sum to $410,391.33 to reflect the higher lost earnings figure.

On June 11, 1993, petitioners moved to alter or amend the judgment under RCFC 59, seeking two additional forms of relief. First, they asked the court to backdate the application of the annuity's four percent annual compound growth factor to the earliest possible judgment date, which would have generated an additional $18.907 per day for the period between the proposed earlier start date and actual annuity purchase.

The court denied this request, finding no legal authority for backdating the growth factor beyond the April 29, 1992, corrected judgment date, and noting that petitioners provided only practical speculation and not legal authority for their position. Second, petitioners sought post-judgment interest on the lump sum from the date of judgment to the date of payment, arguing that the Program's stated goal of fair and generous compensation required it.

The court denied this request as well. Under the rule established in Library of Congress v.

Shaw, 478 U.S. 310 (1986), interest cannot be awarded against the United States without an express statutory waiver of sovereign immunity authorizing it. The Vaccine Act contains no such provision, and the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund, notwithstanding its separate funding through excise taxes, is not a government corporation operating free of sovereign immunity — it is merely a segregated Treasury account.

The court declined to award interest. The court's order confirmed the entirety of the compensation awarded to Jamie Kay Edgar as follows: an annuity for future medical expenses of $172,526.06 for the first year (April 29, 1992 through April 28, 1993), increasing by four percent compounded annually in each subsequent year, to be provided through an annuity purchased and owned by respondent from a qualifying insurance carrier; and a lump sum of $410,391.33 covering past and future pain and suffering, lost earnings, and past unreimbursed expenditures.

The underlying vaccine and specific injury are not described in this document, as respondent had conceded entitlement at the outset.