In an interesting new Ninth Circuit case considering whether "the mailbox rule" applies to cases brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act (it doesn't . . .), Judge Sidney R. Thomas begins his concurring opinion as follows:
This case provides fresh meaning to James M. Cain’s “The Postman Always Rings Twice.”1 Anton Vacek was first struck by a Post Office truck, and then had his damage claim stamped out because the Post Office lost it in the mail.
1 JAMES M. CAIN, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (KNOPF, 1934); See also THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (WARNER, 1981); THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (MGM, 1946); LE DERNIER TOURNANT (LUX PRODUCTIONS, 1939). The title is ironic because there is no reference to a postman either in Cain’s book or in the subsequent film adaptations. When asked for an explanation, Cain purportedly explained that his manuscript had been rejected by 13 publishers prior to being accepted for publication on his 14th attempt, so that when the publisher asked him what he wanted the work to be entitled he drew on this experience and suggested The Postman Always Rings Twice. Like Vacek, Cain apparently had come to associate the postal service with dark disappointment.
Vacek v. United States Postal Service, No. 04-15961 (9th Cir. May 24, 2006).