Plaintiff Kristy Keirsey, a dental hygienist, sued multiple defendants including Paul Hopkins and other VA employees in the Eastern District of Missouri, alleging violations of the Federal Tort Claims Act, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, and various titles of the Civil Rights Act related to a COVID-19 vaccination and workplace accommodation issues. The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint and to substitute government agencies as defendants, while the plaintiff sought leave to amend her complaint.
Factual Overview
Keirsey worked as a dental hygienist at a VA facility in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. After contracting COVID-19 in late 2020, she received a COVID vaccination on December 23, 2020, despite expressing concerns about the timing given her recent infection. She alleged that defendant Ashley Lepold told her the vaccine was safe if she didn’t have a fever. Keirsey claimed the vaccination caused unspecified injuries and filed a workers’ compensation claim. She also requested workplace accommodations, which she alleged were initially approved by her supervisor but then blocked by other defendants. Her claims involved various allegations about the handling of her workers’ compensation claim, denials of accommodation requests, and alleged retaliation for reporting COVID-positive patients in the dental clinic.
Legal Analysis
Service of Process: The court found that service was defective because Keirsey personally served the summonses, which violated Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(c)(2) prohibiting parties from serving their own summonses. Additionally, she failed to properly serve federal employees as required by Rule 4(i).
Constitutional Claims: The court determined that Keirsey’s Fourteenth Amendment claims failed because they applied only to state actors, not federal employees. Her Fifth Amendment claims were barred by sovereign immunity, and Bivens claims were not available for her type of due process allegations.
FTCA and Civil Rights Claims:
The court found that Keirsey failed to exhaust administrative remedies before filing her FTCA claim. Additionally, her claims were preempted by the Federal Employees Compensation Act. The Civil Rights Act claims failed because she did not allege discrimination based on protected characteristics.
Individual Defendants: The court analyzed claims against each defendant and found that Keirsey failed to plead sufficient facts to state plausible claims against any of them individually.
The court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss, denied the motion to substitute as moot, and denied Keirsey’s motion for leave to amend her complaint.
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