Jessica Hernandez v. United States

── Jessica Hernandez v. United States ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: June 08, 2026 Category: NEW USCA11 Case: 25-11336 Document: 38-1 Date Filed: 06/08/2026 Page: 1 of 13 NOT FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 25-11336 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ JESSICA HERNANDEZ, SHEILA C. FIGUEROA, Plaintiffs-Appellants, versus UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Defendant-Appellee. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 9:24-cv-80511-AMC ____________________ Before ROSENBAUM, GRANT, and MARCUS, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: USCA11 Case: 25-11336 Document: 38-1 Date Filed: 06/08/2026 Page: 2 of 13 2 Opinion of the Court 25-11336 Plaintiffs Jessica Hernandez and Sheila Figueroa appeal the district court’s dismissal of their Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) claims, which arose out of a collision with a United States Postal Service (“USPS”) vehicle. The district court concluded that the plaintiffs failed to properly “present” their claims to the USPS within two years of the collision, which is a precondition for an FTCA lawsuit. On appeal, the plaintiffs argue that: (1) emails sent by their law firm to two USPS employees satisfied the presentation requirement; (2) the district court should have applied the doctrine of “constructive filing” to deem their claims presented; and (3) the district court should have equitably tolled the two-year presenta- tion deadline. After careful review, we affirm. I. The relevant background is this. On November 16, 2020, in Boynton Beach, Florida, a USPS truck driven by a USPS employee allegedly ran a stop sign and collided with a vehicle driven by Her- nandez. Figueroa was a passenger in Hernandez’s vehicle; accord- ing to their complaints, both women sustained serious injuries. The plaintiffs retained Berman Law Group (“Berman”) to repre- sent them in a potential suit against the USPS. Berman initially contacted the USPS shortly after the acci- dent, sending letters to the agency through certified mail. It ad- vised that the plaintiffs intended to make claims against the agency and cited Florida’s statutory waiver of sovereign immunity. The agency promptly responded in two letters to the law firm. It explained that any claims against the agency must be made USCA11 Case: 25-11336 Document: 38-1 Date Filed: 06/08/2026 Page: 3 of 13 25-11336 Opinion of the Court 3 under the FTCA, not Florida’s waiver of sovereign immunity. It also provided detailed instructions on how to submit the plaintiffs’ claims to the USPS. It advised them to complete Standard Form 95 (“SF-95”) and to submit the form to the USPS’s Tort Claim Coor- dinator Specialist in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It warned that “nei- ther the Department of Justice regulations nor Postal regulations provide for acceptance of electronically mailed tort claims.” Berman received the first of these letters in December 2020, and the second in January 2021, leaving the firm with about twenty-two months to properly present t