PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ...

U.S.C. § 2679(d)(2). The Government then substituted the
United States as the sole party defendant. Id. Santos and the
Government thereafter stipulated to a voluntary dismissal of the
removed action without prejudice so that Santos could bring an
administrative claim as the FTCA requires. 28 U.S.C. §
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2675(a).
Santos did not challenge the removal of her case to the
District Court or the substitution of parties and, accordingly, she
filed the contemplated administrative claim. The Department of
Health and Human Services, however, failed to take action on
her claim for six months, and its inaction was deemed a denial
of her claim. She then filed this suit in the District Court. After
answering the complaint, the Government moved for judgment
on the pleadings, or, in the alternative, for summary judgment,
on the ground that the FTCA’s two-year statute of limitations
barred Santos’s claim. On the proceedings on the motion,
Santos acknowledged that she filed her claim in the state court
more than two years after its accrual, but argued that the
FTCA’s statute of limitations should be equitably tolled so that
her claim would be timely because she did not know that the
allegedly negligent healthcare providers had been deemed
federal employees. The District Court rejected Santos’s tolling
argument and found that her claim was untimely because in its
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In this stipulation, the Government waived the right to file
a motion to dismiss based on the FTCA’s statute of limitations
but reserved the right to plead as an affirmative defense “any
statute of limitations issues” and the right to file a motion to
dismiss on other grounds. App. at 102-03.
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