Background
Coralee L. Kamoku appealed pro se the district court’s dismissal of her complaint challenging the Commissioner of Social Security’s decision granting her disability benefits. The district court dismissed the complaint as untimely because it was filed more than two years after the sixty-day limitations period expired.
The court’s reasoning
The panel reviewed the dismissal de novo and affirmed. The court noted that the complaint was filed well beyond the sixty-day limit set by Section forty-two thousand five hundred, subsection g of Title forty-two of the United States Code. The court found the district court correctly denied equitable tolling because the plaintiff’s claimed hardships, including a family death and foreclosure, occurred after the deadline. The court also agreed that attorney miscalculation is insufficient for tolling and that the plaintiff failed to show how the pandemic specifically prevented timely filing.
Attorney miscalculation is simply not sufficient to warrant equitable tolling
Lawrence v. Florida, 549 U.S. 327, 336 (2007)
What it means going forward
This decision reinforces the strict application of the sixty-day filing deadline for Social Security appeals and clarifies that common personal hardships or attorney errors do not automatically justify extending the time to sue.
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