Lucia Urizar-Mota sued the federal government under the FTCA after Providence Community Health Center providers allegedly failed to refer her for neuroimaging that could have detected a slow-growing brain tumor. The tumor eventually required emergency surgery that left her with permanent neurological damage, preventing her from performing household duties and caring for her four children. Her husband Sergio Reyes and their children sought loss-of-consortium damages stemming from her injuries.
Circuit Judge Dunlap wrote that while the First Circuit has treated FTCA presentment requirements 'somewhat leniently,' the Reyes family members failed to meet minimum requirements by not filing separate administrative claims identifying themselves as claimants or requesting specific damages amounts. 'Allowing one claimant's exhaustion of her administrative remedies to satisfy the exhaustion requirement for other possible claimants would make it extremely difficult for the agency to know the value of the suit, thus making settlement less likely,' the court said, citing precedent.
The district court had initially denied the government's motion to dismiss the family's claims, holding that the government had sufficient notice under the First Circuit's lenient approach because the claims were 'purely derivative' of Urizar-Mota's claim. After a bench trial, the court awarded $662,194 in medical expenses, over $6.6 million in pain and suffering damages to Urizar-Mota, $2.92 million in homemaker loss damages, and $3.5 million in loss-of-consortium damages to her family members.
The appeals court remanded the homemaker damages award for recalculation, finding the district court committed 'meaningful error' by assuming Urizar-Mota would provide homemaker services consistently for her entire 50-year life expectancy without considering when her children would become independent. The court affirmed the pain and suffering awards and most medical expense damages, upholding the finding that the health center's providers breached their duty of care by failing to refer Urizar-Mota for imaging despite 'red flags' in her symptoms.