Tort Claims Settlement

The Department of Transportation requested that GAO reconsider a part of a decision which disallowed reimbursement from the permanent indefinite appropriation of a tort settlement negotiated between the Alaska Railroad and Anthony Anzevino. The claim in question was one of a number that arose from a train collision. For the most part, the claims, including the Anzevino claim, were settled and paid in 1976. In a request for a GAO determination, the question was presented whether the claims were payable from the permanent indefinite appropriation or from Alaska Railroad funds. GAO concluded that the tort claims could not be paid out of the permanent indefinite appropriation, since the provision of the law which authorized payment by the Railroad had been repealed by the Federal Tort Claims Act. GAO agreed to permit reimbursement from the judgment appropriation for both voluntary and presettlement claims, and settlement claims in excess of $2,500, but under $100,000. The source of the payment might have been unclear to the Railroad, and claims could have been paid under the permanent indefinite appropriation had they been properly presented. GAO denied reimbursement of the Anzevino settlement since the permanent appropriation was not available for payments in excess of $100,000. It instructed the Railroad to seek reimbursement from Congress. The Department urged reconsideration of this decision as the ceiling on indefinite appropriations had been removed when the request was considered; a special appropriation was not feasible since the Department of the Treasury no longer submits individual settlements to Congress, and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are reluctant to consider appropriation requests for individual claims; the same rationale for payment of the other claims applied to this claim; and reimbursement from the permanent indefinite appropriation was needed to enable the Railroad to continue paying its operating expenses. The law in effect at the time of making the payments denied reimbursement of the Anzevino settlement from the permanent indefinite appropriation. Nothing in the amendment suggested that the amendment applied retroactively. There was no legal basis for permitting reimbursement from the permanent indefinite appropriation.