On Thursday May 9, 2014 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Christopher Wynn (pdf) could not be compensated through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) -- even if he proved a vaccine injury -- because his mother, Chandra Price, waited too long to pursue his claim. The court ruled against Ms. Price and Christopher on jurisdictional grounds, but also decided that there was no reason to use equitable tolling, a legal doctrine that allows the court to set aside a technical objection for reasons of fairness.
The case:
Christopher T. Wynn was born on June 26, 1991. Three years later he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), on June 29, 1994. On February 2008 his mother, Chandra Price, represented by a lawyer, filed a petition in his name with NVICP, claiming that his vaccines caused his ASD. Specifically, “she believed the ASD was caused by the vaccinations ‘being given in back to back increments, and by mercury toxicity.’” The petition filed in 2008 was not complete, but was complete by April 2009.
The government responded that the claim was past the time period for filing suit. If Christopher’s injury is dated to June 1994, when he was diagnosed (although the first symptoms of ASD manifested in June 1993 the government did not use that as the determining period), 2008 is long past the deadline of the statute of limitations of 36 months. Proceedings continued, and in 2012 Ms. Price’s lawyer filed a motion to dismiss the claim, apparently concluding she is bound to lose because she filed too late. The Special Master entered judgment accordingly – but apparently Ms. Price then fired her lawyer and filed exception – objected - to the judgment. The Special Master denied her exception.
Thirty five days later Ms. Price sent a letter to the Court of Federal Claims opposing the Special Master’s decision. The Court treated the letter as a motion for review, but went on to dismiss the motion for lack of jurisdiction. Ms. Price appealed to the Federal Circuit.
This decision was decided completely on procedural grounds; at no point did the court reach Ms. Price’s claims on the merits. Judging by Ms. Price’s claim, the case would and should have lost on the merits: studies examined whether thimerosal in vaccines or the number of vaccines are linked to autism, and found no link. But the case never got to that stage.
Full article here.