Postal Service faces lawsuit over missing mail

In Supreme Court case, Texas landlord alleges intentional withholding of letters.

- BY SUSAN HAIGH

SOME justices appeared to question the government's claim that the Postal Service is shielded from lawsuits.

(PAUL SANCYA Associated Press)

As a general rule, it’s difficult to sue the U.S. Postal Service for lost, delayed or mishandled mail.

But a case before the U.S. Supreme Court involving a Texas landlord who alleges her mail was deliberately withheld for two years is looking to challenge that, in a proceeding the cash-strapped Postal Service says could prompt a deluge of lawsuits over the very common, if frustrating, phenomenon of missing mail. That concern takes on particular resonance during the holiday season, when the volume of mail — billions of sentimental items including Christmas cards and Black Friday purchases — ramps up.

The case focuses on whether the special postal exemption to the Federal Tort Claims Act applies when postal employees intentionally fail to deliver letters and packages.

"We're going to be faced with, I think, a ton of suits about mail," Frederick Liu, assistant to the solicitor general for the Department of Justice, warned the justices during oral arguments last month. He predicted that if the landlord wins the case, people will infer that their mail didn’t arrive “because of a rude comment that they heard, or what have you.”

The federal tort law allows a private individual to sue the federal government for monetary damages if a federal employee hurts them or damages their property by acting negligently.

But Congress created multiple exceptions to the law, including one for the Postal Service, shielding it from lawsuits over missing or late mail.