The Estate of Edward Brian Hal v. United States ( 2011 )


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  •               United States Court of Appeals
    For the First Circuit
    Nos. 09-1950
    10-1766
    PATRICIA DONAHUE, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HER CAPACITY
    AS ADMINISTRATRIX OF THE ESTATE OF MICHAEL J. DONAHUE;
    MICHAEL T. DONAHUE; SHAWN DONAHUE; AND THOMAS DONAHUE,
    Plaintiffs, Appellees,
    v.
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
    Defendant, Appellant.
    ____________________
    Nos. 09-1951
    09-1952
    THE ESTATE OF EDWARD BRIAN HALLORAN, BY PATRICIA MACARELLI, IN
    HER CAPACITY AS ADMINISTRATRIX OF THE ESTATE,
    Plaintiff, Appellee/Cross-Appellant,
    v.
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
    Defendant, Appellant/Cross-Appellee.
    ____________________
    Before
    Lynch, Chief Judge,
    Torruella, Selya, Boudin, Lipez, Howard and Thompson,
    Circuit Judges.
    ____________________
    ORDER OF COURT
    Entered: October 6, 2011
    The petition for rehearing having been denied by the
    panel    of   judges   who    decided   the   case,   and   the   petition   for
    rehearing en banc having been submitted to the active judges of
    this court and a majority of the judges not having voted that the
    case be heard en banc, it is ordered that the petition for
    rehearing and the petition for rehearing en banc be denied.
    LYNCH, Chief Judge, BOUDIN and HOWARD, Circuit Judges,
    statement on denial of rehearing en banc.      Under the Constitution,
    federal courts may not make decisions based on sympathy to parties
    and may not displace the judgments made by Congress in non-
    constitutional matters.      The legal issue presented by these cases
    is not whether the conduct of the FBI was shameful; it was.         It is
    not whether plaintiffs are victims of that conduct; they are.
    However wronged the plaintiffs, the issue is whether
    these plaintiffs have complied with the stringent limitation period
    set by Congress for claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act.         
    28 U.S.C. § 2401
    (b).    Because the money to pay victims comes from the
    United States, those time limits as a matter of law are required to
    be strictly construed.       United States v. Kubrick, 
    444 U.S. 111
    ,
    117-18 (1979).     Whether the federal courts even have jurisdiction
    over the claim depends upon the timely filing of an administrative
    notice of claim.    
    28 U.S.C. §§ 2401
    (b), 2675(a); Kubrick, 
    444 U.S. at 117
    .   Our case law requires that the point of view of an
    objectively reasonable person be used, not the point of view of the
    particular plaintiffs.      Cascone v. United States, 
    370 F.3d 95
    , 104
    (1st Cir. 2004); McIntyre v. United States, 
    367 F.3d 38
    , 52 (1st
    Cir. 2004).
    There      were    many    well-publicized   admissions     --
    -2-
    particularly those of FBI Agent Morris whose dramatic courtroom
    disclosures specifically about the FBI's role in the May 11, 1982,
    double murder of Halloran and Donahue were corroborated by several
    other witnesses -- which put objectively reasonable persons on
    notice of these claims.              Despite this, plaintiffs did not act
    within the required time limits to file the required claims.                   It is
    an easy step to file a claim.          A majority of a panel of this court,
    which        took   these   claims   very    seriously,   concluded     that    the
    plaintiffs did not file a timely claim, in light of the arguments
    made and evidence presented by plaintiffs.                  The courts cannot
    assume the role of advocates and create arguments never made.                   Nor
    was there any error in the legal standards used in making that
    decision.
    That the courts have no jurisdiction to hear a law suit
    for damages under the FTCA because of plaintiffs' delay does not
    mean that the two other branches of government are precluded from
    providing a remedy.           That is a decision for the Congress and for
    the   Executive,        not   for    the    federal   courts,   which   have     no
    jurisdiction to award relief.
    TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge, concerning the denial of en
    banc review.         Some cases are of "exceptional importance"1 because
    of the potential they have to affect the lives of millions of
    people.        See, e.g., Igartúa, et al. v. United States, No. 09-2186,
    1
    See Fed. R. App. P. 35(a)(2).
    -3-
    __F.3d __, 
    2011 WL 3340120
    , *2 (1st Cir. Aug. 4, 2011) (Torruella,
    J., dissenting). Other cases are of exceptional importance because
    of the light they cast on our public institutions.                      The latter,
    while not always directly affecting as broad a segment of the
    population, are nevertheless exceptionally important by virtue of
    what they demonstrate about the trust that we -- for better or
    worse -- place in those institutions.               This is one of those cases.
    Yet barely a month since a divided vote in Igartúa denied 4 million
    United    States     citizens      residing    in     Puerto     Rico    review   of
    constitutional       issues   of     exceptional       importance,      this   court
    continues     this      noxious      pattern    and      once    again     prevents
    consideration      by   the   full    court    of    questions    of    exceptional
    importance.    By this action it allows the government's outrageous
    conduct to remain free of any consequence, and as in Igartúa,
    perpetrates a monstrous injustice on another, albeit smaller, but
    no less worthy, group of hapless citizens.
    This is not the appropriate occasion for revisiting in
    any detail my disagreement with the panel's majority opinion.                      I
    indicate here only the grounds for my belief that the error
    presented in this case is sufficiently important to merit en banc
    review.
    Beyond its implications for the Donahue and Halloran
    families, this case has thrust renewed attention on the FBI's
    reliance on confidential criminal informants, and the obvious ways
    -4-
    in which this relationship can become too cozy for comfort. Public
    trust in our institutions requires that when these institutions
    stray, they be held accountable and made to absorb the costs of
    their conduct.      They ought not be perceived as operating with de
    facto impunity.        Although it is hoped that these agencies will
    learn from these dreadful examples of government gone amuck, future
    reform is of little consolation to those injured by official
    malfeasance.
    This    concern   would      be    important    even   if   our   cases
    required the panel's result.             But they do not.      The government's
    claim that the Donahue and Halloran estates filed their claims too
    late rests on an astonishingly one-sided understanding of what
    reasonableness requires.       The panel majority pins the accrual date
    as September 2, 1998, based upon publicity arising from FBI Agent
    Morris's revelations about the leak of Halloran's identity to
    Bulger.     I cannot see in what way it is "reasonable" to expect
    surviving     family    members     to     credit   prima     facie     outrageous
    speculation    in    the   papers    that      high-level    and   systemic    FBI
    corruption may have contributed to their injury, particularly when
    -- as here -- the government had repeatedly assured them over the
    years that someone else was responsible. Is it so unreasonable for
    citizens to rely on what their government was repeatedly asserting
    as the truth?       Can the government be allowed to benefit from its
    own perfidious conduct in duping its own citizens with stonewalling
    -5-
    and outright lies?    Are citizens to be held to such a standard of
    cynicism in their dealings with government, especially with such
    hallowed agencies as the FBI?
    Moreover, as the parties have represented, even if the
    publicity surrounding Morris's revelations triggered a duty to
    inquire, that alone is not sufficient for accrual. See McIntyre v.
    United States, 
    367 F.3d 38
    , 52 (1st Cir. 2004) (stating that
    although a "mere hunch, hint, suspicion, or rumor of a claim" may
    "give rise to a duty to inquire into the possible existence of a
    claim," a claim "does not accrue" on that basis) (first emphasis in
    original, second emphasis added).        What triggers accrual is having
    enough information at one's disposal to file a claim -- in other
    words, accrual occurs at the rational endpoint of inquiry, not at
    its outset.     Cf. Merck & Co., Inc. v. Reynolds, 
    130 S. Ct. 1784
    ,
    1797 (2010) (rejecting argument that limitations period under 
    28 U.S.C. § 1658
    (b)(1), which runs from "discovery" of violation,
    begins to run "when a plaintiff would have begun investigating")
    (emphasis in original).       It is hard to see how it could be
    otherwise, as I can see no reason to think there is a usefully
    general answer to the question of what the period of time should be
    between when inquiry begins and when it will yield sufficient
    evidence   to   support   filing   an   FTCA   claim.   Given   that   the
    government was actively stonewalling as late as 2005 -- some seven
    years after Morris's testimony -- even if the parties were on
    -6-
    inquiry notice, they would not have discovered anything useful and
    reliable until, at the earliest, the publication of Judge Wolf's
    decision in Salemme in September of 1999.2
    Taken   individually,       these      concerns   --      individual
    injustice, loss of public trust, and substantial legal error --
    might not by themselves justify en banc review.              Taken together, I
    believe they do.
    As in Igartúa, the underpinning for this outcome is an
    anachronistic judicially invented legal theory that has no validity
    or place in American law -- in this case, sovereign immunity.                   Two
    hundred and thirty-five years after we rid ourselves of King George
    III and his despotic ascendancy over colonial America, we cling to
    a doctrine that was originally based on the Medieval notion that
    "the King can do no wrong."             This maxim was blindly accepted into
    American law under the assumption that it was incorporated as part
    of the common law in existence when our Nation separated from
    England.      See Owen v. City of Independence, Mo., 
    445 U.S. 622
    , 645
    n.28       (1980).     However,    this     assumption    does     not   withstand
    historical       scrutiny.        See    Edwin   M.    Borchard,      Governmental
    Responsibility in Tort (pt. VI), 36 Yale L. J. 1, 17-41 (1926).
    Furthermore, the present case is the quintessential example of the
    fact that at times the government can, and does, do wrong.
    2
    See United States v. Salemme, 
    91 F. Supp. 2d 141
     (D. Mass.
    1999).
    -7-
    More importantly, the doctrine of sovereign immunity
    cannot be sustained in the face of our constitutional structure.
    Although its language is far from specific in many parts, the
    Constitution nevertheless contains nothing, specific or implied,
    adopting the absolutist principal upon which sovereign immunity
    rests.      Furthermore, the record of the debates preceding the
    adoption     of    the    Constitution    are     bare    of   any   language     or
    asseveration that might serve as a basis for support of this
    monarchist anachronism.         See generally Erwin Chemerinsky, Against
    Sovereign Immunity, 
    53 Stan. L. Rev. 1201
     (2001); Susan Randall,
    Sovereign Immunity and the Uses of History, 
    812 Neb. L. Rev. 1
    (2002). In fact, the establishment in this country of a republican
    form of government, in which sovereignty does not repose on any
    single individual or institution, made it clear that neither the
    government nor any part thereof could be considered as being in the
    same infallible position as the English king had been, and thus
    immune from responsibility for harm that it caused its citizens.
    Not   only    is   sovereign      immunity   inconsistent     with   a
    central tenet of American government that no one, including the
    government, is above the law, it also runs contrary to specific,
    fundamental provisions of the Constitution: the Supremacy Clause3
    and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.4                  Even assuming
    3
    U.S. Const. art. VI, § 2, cl. 2.
    4
    U.S. Const. amend. V.
    -8-
    arguendo that the doctrine of sovereign immunity was part of
    English common law, its transference to our legal system would have
    been prevented, and was trumped, by the Constitution and its
    Supremacy Clause, and especially by the Due Process Clause, which
    requires that the tortuous deprivation of the lives of citizens by
    the government's felonious agents and partners be duly compensated.
    Many jurisdictions have recognized the incompatibility of
    sovereign immunity with democratic principles.       In the United
    States, many state high courts have rejected sovereign immunity as
    fundamentally unjust.   See, e.g., Muskopf v. Corning Hosp. Dist.,
    
    359 P.2d 457
    , 458 (Cal. 1961); Molitor v. Kaneland Community Unit
    Dist., 
    163 N.E.2d 89
    , 94 (Ill. 1959); Barker v. City of Santa Fe,
    
    136 P.2d 480
    , 482 (N.M. 1943).         As a result of judicial and
    legislative action, "only a handful of States still cling to the
    old common-law rule of immunity for governmental functions." Owen,
    
    445 U.S. at
    645 n.28.     Globally, there is a trend among major
    democratic nations towards the abolition of sovereign immunity.
    See Denise Gillman, Calling the United States' Bluff: How Sovereign
    Immunity Undermines the United States' Claim to an Effective
    Domestic Human Rights System, 95 Geo. L. J. 591, 636-46 (2007).
    Even the United Kingdom, from which it is believed (wrongly, see
    Borchard, supra) the American notion of sovereign immunity derived,
    abrogated the government's immunity from suits in tort through the
    Crown Proceedings Act of 1947.    See James E. Pfander, Government
    -9-
    Accountability in Europe: A Comparative Assessment, 35 Geo. Wash.
    Int'l. L. Rev. 611, 615-17 (2003).
    The Donahue and Halloran cases are an unfortunate but
    vivid example that even in the United States, with all our legal
    and constitutional safeguards, the government can go rogue.
    Although it is my belief and hope that our system is normally self-
    corrective,     there   are    times    when    the    courts   have    a    duty    to
    intervene to keep our system within the bounds of decency.                    This is
    such a time, but sadly, this court has failed in its duty.                          The
    concept of sovereign immunity may be beyond the power of this court
    to challenge.       However, this court had other valid grounds to
    correct the injustice of the panel opinion.                We have in the past
    tolled the Federal Tort Claims Act's statute of limitations when
    the government deliberately concealed evidence of its wrongdoing,
    and there was no reason for us not to do so here.                See Attallah v.
    United States, 
    955 F.2d 776
    , 779-80 (1st Cir. 1992) (finding FTCA
    statute    of   limitations      tolled        when    government      deliberately
    concealed evidence of murder by Customs employees). Moreover, even
    if we must respect the notion of sovereign immunity, that respect
    did not require the harsh and unjust result in this case.                    The FTCA
    waives the United States' sovereign immunity for a claim presented
    within two years after the claim "accrues," 28 U.S.C. 2675(a), and
    it   was   within   this      court's   power     to    interpret      the   accrual
    requirement broadly enough to allow the claims in this case to
    -10-
    proceed.     See United States v. Aetna Cas. & Surety Co., 
    338 U.S. 366
    , 383 (1949) ("We think that the congressional attitude in
    passing the [FTCA] is . . . accurately reflected by [the] statement
    . . . : 'The exemption of the sovereign from suit involves hardship
    enough, where consent has been withheld.       We are not to add to its
    rigor   by   refinement   of   construction   where   consent   has   been
    announced.'") (quoting Anderson v. Hayes Constr. Co., 
    153 N.E. 28
    ,
    29-30 (1926) (Cardozo, J.)).        I believe this court should have
    granted en banc review to petitioners, reversed the decision of the
    panel, and reinstated the judgment of the district court granting
    damages to petitioners against the government for its felonious
    part in the murder of their loved ones.
    James "Whitey" Bulger has finally been apprehended, and
    is now being haled into the federal courthouse in Boston to answer
    for the crimes he allegedly committed years ago. But unlike Bulger
    himself, thanks to the panel majority's decision and the full
    court's refusal to reverse it, Bulger's most trusted associate --
    the Boston FBI office -- has gotten away with murder.       This is the
    wrong outcome, and most importantly, our law does not require it.
    Cf. Attallah, 
    955 F.2d at 779-80
    .     The moral of this outcome seems
    to be that crime does pay, at least for the government.         This case
    cries for redress, either by the Supreme Court, or by a special
    bill of Congress.
    -11-
    LIPEZ, Circuit Judge, dissenting from the denial of
    rehearing en banc.      There is nothing more hollow than expressions
    of sympathy by judges over an injustice that the law permits them
    to redress.    There was no compelled outcome here.                Instead, there
    was a serious misjudgment that perpetuates a grave injustice.                   The
    en   banc   process    permits   us    to    remedy    such   an    injustice   by
    acknowledging    the    obvious:      this    is   a   case   of    "exceptional
    importance" that requires deliberation by the full court. See Fed.
    R. App. P. 35(a)(2).5     I therefore am once again disheartened that
    three members of the court have voted to prevent en banc review.
    See Igartúa v. United States, No. 09-2186, 
    2011 WL 3340120
    , at *10
    (1st Cir. Aug. 4, 2011) (Lipez, J., dissenting from the denial of
    rehearing en banc).
    It is true that en banc review is reserved for the
    exceptional case. It is also true that not every "unjust" decision
    will be a matter of exceptional importance under Rule 35(a).                    But
    the denial of en banc review here raises the obvious question: if
    this case does not warrant the full court's attention, what case
    does? Two families were tragically harmed by an institution of the
    federal government.      The betrayal of the public trust could not be
    more egregious.       Two district judges and a member of the panel
    5
    Although en banc rehearing is "not favored," exceptions exist
    where "en banc consideration is necessary to secure or maintain
    uniformity of the court's decisions" or "the proceeding involves a
    question of exceptional importance." Fed. R. Civ. P. 35(a).
    -12-
    first hearing this case have found a basis in law to redress this
    betrayal.   Three members of our court have voted to reconsider the
    panel's unfortunate decision.      Given these circumstances, it is
    frustrating in the extreme to witness the aversion to en banc
    review play out again.
    This institutional bias against en banc review goes
    beyond the language of the rule emphasizing that en banc rehearing
    is generally disfavored.     It is grounded, in part, in the human
    dynamics of an appellate court.        The en banc process is deeply
    divisive.   It requires colleagues to review the work of colleagues
    and sometimes judge that work negatively.       There is also a fear
    that line drawing will become too difficult.     If en banc review is
    granted here, the worry goes, how can we deny it there?        These
    feelings and fears have no place in the en banc calculus.     We can
    move beyond the hard feelings of the en banc process.    We can draw
    distinctions in principled ways.    Our job requires us to do these
    things.
    This case is moored deeply in its facts and, ultimately,
    requires a judgment about when the families should have been on
    notice of the FBI's "reprehensible" role in their decedents'
    murders.    Donahue v. United States, 
    634 F.3d 615
    , 616 (1st Cir.
    2011) (using that term to describe the FBI's conduct).     In urging
    en banc review, I acknowledge that the panel majority's conclusion
    reflects careful thought and a good-faith attempt to deal with
    -13-
    difficult facts.             It is, however, palpably wrong.             The majority
    correctly observes that "courts must apply legal rules even-
    handedly," 
    id. at 629
    , and they purport to apply a "rule" that
    requires rejection of appellants' claims as time-barred.                       But the
    issue here does not turn on a bright-line rule; rather, the
    question is one of reasonableness.                     See 
    id. at 623
     ("[T]hese
    appeals       involve        only   the     objective      reasonableness      of    the
    plaintiffs' failure to discern at an earlier time both their injury
    and   its     likely     cause.").           Determining     whether      conduct    was
    reasonable requires us to make a judgment call.                         In making that
    call,    we    fail     in    our   responsibility      if   we    do   not   test   its
    correctness by applying what our late First Circuit colleague,
    Judge Frank M. Coffin, called "the justice nerve."                        See Frank M.
    Coffin, The Ways of a Judge: Reflections from the Federal Appellate
    Bench 222 (1980).
    To   be    sure,      we    may   not   disregard    applicable       legal
    doctrine      simply     to     accomplish      justice.      No   matter     what   the
    equities, we may not "take it upon ourselves to extend the waiver
    [of sovereign immunity] beyond that which Congress intended,"
    United States v. Kubrick, 
    444 U.S. 111
    , 118 (1979).                           "Neither,
    however, should we . . . narrow the waiver that Congress intended."
    
    Id.
         In opening the federal courts to tort claims against the
    United States, Congress made plain its objective to treat fairly
    individuals harmed by the conduct of government actors.                       See Feres
    -14-
    v. United States, 
    340 U.S. 135
    , 139 (1950) (describing the FTCA as
    "the culmination of a long effort to mitigate unjust consequences
    of sovereign immunity from suit"); 
    id. at 140
     ("The primary purpose
    of the Act was to extend a remedy to those who had been without it
    . . . .").    Although we are not "free to construe [the FTCA statute
    of limitations] so as to defeat its obvious purpose, which is to
    encourage the prompt presentation of claims," Kubrick, 
    444 U.S. at 117
    , we also should not make the reasonableness judgment in a
    particular    case    without    regard    for   the     FTCA's    objective    "to
    mitigate unjust consequences," Feres, 
    340 U.S. at 139
    .
    Here, even without taking into account the egregiousness
    of the government's conduct, the facts favor the Hallorans and the
    Donahues.    Our earlier precedent had carved out a path that should
    have led the panel majority to conclude that the Hallorans' and
    Donahues' suits against the United States were timely.                  As I shall
    explain, the circumstances here are readily distinguishable from
    those   of   other,    related    cases    in    which    we    have    found   the
    plaintiffs' actions to be late.            Moreover, when measured against
    the only just outcome in this case, the majority's rejection of the
    Halloran and Donahue claims as time-barred is not only wrong, but
    inexcusably so.
    The   panel   majority       concludes      that     the   plaintiffs
    reasonably should have known the factual basis for their claims by
    September 2, 1998, based solely on "information that was generally
    -15-
    available at the time of the Salemme hearings."             Donahue, 634 F.3d
    at 625.   The critical information was "the avalanche of publicity"
    surrounding      John   Morris's    testimony      in     April   1998,    id.,
    supplemented by subsequent publicity about the ongoing hearings,
    most notably publicity on September 2 surrounding Stephen Flemmi's
    admission that he had been told of Brian Halloran's tip to the FBI
    about Roger Wheeler's murder.         Undoubtedly, these press reports
    concerning Morris and Flemmi were a significant development in
    unwrapping the relationship between the FBI and Bulger/Flemmi.              In
    none of our other cases, however, were these early-stage reports
    the only basis for attributing knowledge of the relationship to the
    plaintiffs.      Among other factors, we have emphasized Judge Mark L.
    Wolf's decision in September 1999 – a year after the cutoff date
    imposed by the majority in this case – as an important piece of the
    puzzle.
    As examples of other approaches to the accrual date, in
    the Roger Wheeler case (the other plaintiff in McIntyre v. United
    States, 
    367 F.3d 38
     (1st Cir. 2004)), where the cut-off date for
    accrual was May 1999, one family member had spoken publicly on 60
    Minutes suggesting actual knowledge of a connection between the FBI
    and Bulger/Flemmi before the cut-off date, and other family members
    were aware of that broadcast, among other news reports. 
    Id. at 49
    .
    In Rakes v. United States, 
    442 F.3d 7
     (1st Cir. 2006), where the
    cutoff    also    was   in   May   1999,    the   panel    referred   to    the
    -16-
    "speculation"     before       September       1998   about     John   Connolly's
    protection of Bulger and Flemmi, which triggered a duty to inquire.
    
    Id. at 23
    .    We then concluded that the claim accrued "by late 1998"
    after Rakes's own trial and the publication of articles surrounding
    Flemmi's. 
    Id.
     (emphasis added). Adopting that same timeline based
    on the same publicity would save the Hallorans' claim.                       As for
    Michael    Donahue,    whose    claim     was    filed   a    bit   later,   it   is
    significant that he was an innocent bystander while Rakes was
    immersed in the Bulger/Flemmi history as a result of his own trial
    in late May and June 1998 (for perjury, because he lied to the
    grand jury about whether Bulger forced him to sell his – Rakes's –
    liquor store).    If    "late 1998" was the appropriate accrual date
    for the Rakes family, it would be appropriate to conclude that the
    accrual date for the Donahues was months later (arguably as late as
    Judge Wolf's decision in September 1999). In addition, much of the
    publicity cited in Rakes referred to the FBI's acquiescence to
    criminal activity other than murder – which would not have alerted
    the plaintiffs to the much more outrageous link between the FBI and
    the killings of their family members.             
    Id. at 22-23
    .
    In Callahan v. United States, 
    426 F.3d 444
     (1st Cir.
    2005), where the cutoff date was May 2000, we noted the April 1998
    publicity    surrounding       Morris's    testimony     but    also   emphasized
    newspaper articles that were published in 1999 and Judge Wolf's
    opinion.     The panel wrote: "Agent Morris's testimony and Judge
    -17-
    Wolf's opinion easily provide the requisite knowledge that the FBI
    protected Bulger and Flemmi from prosecution and emboldened them to
    commit crimes, including the murder of Callahan."                
    Id. at 454
    .
    Moreover, we said that "Judge Wolf's statement [suggesting that
    Bulger and Flemmi may have played a role in the Wheeler, Halloran,
    and Callahan murders] would prompt a reasonable person to further
    investigate the matter."        
    Id.
       (emphasis added).        By no means did
    we suggest that the publicity surrounding Morris's testimony more
    than a year earlier was enough on its own to start the running of
    the clock.      Likewise, in Patterson v. United States, 
    451 F.3d 268
    (1st   Cir.    2006),   the   plaintiffs'     claims   were    rejected    "most
    importantly" because one of the plaintiffs had been interviewed
    about the FBI's possible role in the murder at issue before the
    cutoff date – not because of the news accounts.               
    Id. at 273
    .
    It is noteworthy that, in all of these cases, the accrual
    cutoff date was later than the dates in the present case (September
    25, 1998 and March 1999).         As more time passed – particularly with
    the publication      of   Judge    Wolf's    opinion   in   September     1999 –
    Morris's sensational testimony about the FBI's complicity became
    more plausible.     As Judge Torruella points out in his dissent from
    the panel majority opinion, there was no good reason in the early
    stages of the publicity for these particular plaintiffs to pay
    attention to facially outrageous allegations concerning the FBI's
    relationship with Bulger and Flemmi.           See Donahue, 634 F.3d at 633
    -18-
    (Torruella, J., dissenting).            Halloran had identified Flynn as his
    assailant, and the government thought that allegation sufficiently
    reliable to try Flynn for the crime.                By September 1998, it may
    have been reasonable to conclude that the plaintiffs here should
    have had a "'hunch, hint, [or] suspicion'" of a claim, McIntyre,
    
    367 F.3d at 52
     (citation omitted), at most imposing a duty of
    inquiry.      But    that     inquiry    cannot     be   presumed   to    have   had
    instantaneous       results    and,     indeed,    the   government      was   still
    unwilling in 2005 to concede that Connolly had disclosed Halloran's
    conduct to Bulger and Flemmi.               See Donahue, 634 F.3d at 637
    (Torruella, J., dissenting).            At a minimum, the claims here should
    not have been found to accrue, as in Rakes, before "late 1998" and,
    in   light   of    the   unique   scenario        involving   Jimmy   Flynn,     and
    Donahue's bystander status, the plaintiffs were entitled to a more
    generous view of the timing.
    I can safely say that no one on our court is happy with
    the result reached by the panel majority in this case.                   All of us
    recognize the injustice that has been done to the Donahue and
    Halloran families. But we could have remedied this injustice. The
    en banc process is designed for just this situation, where the
    flawed application of precedent by a panel majority should be
    corrected.        I deeply regret that we have failed to do so.                   I
    therefore dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc.
    -19-
    THOMPSON, Circuit Judge, dissenting from the denial of
    rehearing en banc. For the reasons so well articulated by my
    dissenting colleagues, I agree with them that our precedent does
    not compel the conclusion reached by the majority and that this
    case -- whose core question, simply put, is at what point should a
    reasonable person believe that the government is lying to them6 --
    presents an issue of exceptional importance to be considered by the
    full court.   See Fed. R. App. P. 35(a)(2).   Accordingly, I readily
    join my colleagues in dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc.
    I write separately to profess the following: assuming our precedent
    does indeed mandate the outrageous conclusion reached by the
    majority, the grave injustice seething from such a result surely
    provides more than enough reason for us to reexamine the precedent
    that currently restrains us.   I dissent.
    By the Court:
    /s/ Margaret Carter, Clerk
    cc: Hon. William G. Young, Ms Sarah Thornton, Clerk, United States
    District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Mr. Meier, Mr.
    Matthews, Mr. George, Mr. Mazzone, Ms. Lipscomb, Mr. Eiser, Mr.
    Mullane, Mr. Weigand, Ms. Leach, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. Morris, Mr. Levy,
    Mr. Schieffelin, Mr. Bondy and Mr. Christie.
    Q:\TO_ABBS\wp\09-1950O.01a.wpd
    6
    This is not a question of sympathy, but rather, American
    civics.
    -20-