⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Eleventh Circuit hears a dispute over damages after Jesse Anderson's death following treatment at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. The trial court's agreed facts describe a feeding tube, needed after surgery, being inserted into his airway during replacement. He suffered oxygen deprivation and died two days later. His son Webb and his estate pursued claims against the United States, which ultimately admitted liability. After a trial, the judge awarded six million dollars for wrongful death and two point seven million dollars for his pain and suffering before death. The government's appeal is narrower than that tragic history: it is not challenging the pain-and-suffering award or the discovery sanctions imposed against it. It challenges the six-million-dollar wrongful-death award because the family's original administrative claim sought three million dollars for that claim. The Federal Tort Claims Act ordinarily limits recovery to the amount presented to the agency. It allows exceptions for newly discovered evidence that was not reasonably discoverable when the claim was presented, or for intervening facts relating to the amount. The government's lawyer will argue that inflation and higher verdicts do not change the underlying injury and cannot justify doubling this wrongful-death claim. The family's lawyer will argue that extraordinary discovery delays and concealment, combined with unexpected inflation, justify the increase. Evidence about a longer period of suffering supports the separate pain-and-suffering claim; whether that reasoning also permits a larger wrongful-death award is disputed. Listen for both the scope of the statutory exception and whether the trial judge made sufficiently specific findings to explain the increase.

Webb Anderson, et al. v. United States, Appellant (No. 25-11990) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, argued November 6, 2026.