Tavau Sulimoni Hamilton v. HHS - DTP, death with autopsy cause listed as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (1993)

On September 25, 1990, Roy and Sulimoni Hamilton, as legal representatives of the estate of their deceased daughter, Tavau Sulimoni Hamilton, filed a petition for compensation under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. Tavau had received a DTP vaccination on December 9, 1982, and died three days later, on December 12, 1982.

An autopsy listed the cause of death as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The core issue before the Special Master and the Court of Federal Claims was not medical causation but jurisdiction.

The petitioners had previously filed a civil wrongful-death suit against Wyeth Laboratories in the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda, on July 31, 1985. This state civil action was still pending when the Vaccine Act petition was filed in September 1990, although it had been removed from the California court's active list in July 1988.

The state case was not formally dismissed until February 13, 1991, several months after the Vaccine Act petition was filed. Respondent moved to dismiss the Vaccine Act petition.

Petitioners argued that the California action had effectively ended earlier, first contending that California's five-year trial rule had automatically dismissed the state case in August 1990, before the Vaccine Act filing. When the Special Master requested an affidavit, petitioners instead obtained a California nunc pro tunc order dismissing the state civil action retroactively to a date before the Vaccine Program filing.

Special Master Richard Abell rejected this effort and dismissed the petition on November 17, 1992, for lack of jurisdiction, finding that the nunc pro tunc order was an improper use of the court's authority to cure a jurisdictional defect. On April 28, 1993, Judge Robinson affirmed the dismissal.

The court held that because a civil action for damages arising from Tavau's vaccine-related death was pending when the Vaccine Act petition was filed, the Hamiltons were not proper petitioners under section 11(a)(5)(B) of the Act, and the Court of Federal Claims never acquired jurisdiction from the outset. The court also rejected the argument that the California case had been automatically dismissed under the five-year rule, explaining that California dismissal required court action or a defendant's motion after notice to the parties.

The court found that the jurisdictional defect could not be cured retroactively. The published opinion did not reach the merits of whether the DTP vaccine caused Tavau's death, and no compensation was awarded.

The court's decision was affirmed by Judge Robinson.