⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Tenth Circuit hears Cassandra Zeiner's suit over her father Harold's death after a visit to a Veterans Affairs emergency room in Wichita. In February 2019, he arrived with chest pain; a VA cardiologist urged immediate transfer to a hospital equipped for an urgent cardiac procedure, but the transfer was delayed and he died soon after arriving there. The VA inspector general later faulted the delayed transfer and reported that the hospital had not explained it to the family. Zeiner says she learned of the report in 2022; she filed an administrative claim in 2023, then sued the United States. A federal district judge dismissed the case under Kansas's four-year statute of repose, measured from the alleged medical act. Unlike a limitations period that can start when an injury is discovered, a statute of repose runs from the act itself. The appeal asks whether federal tort-claim rules override that state cutoff, or whether the government's alleged failure to tell the family about the transfer delay prevents it from invoking the deadline. Blake Shuart of Hutton and Hutton represents Zeiner; he will ask the court to let her negligence claim proceed.

Zeiner v. United States (No. 25-3057) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, argued September 15, 2026.