United States Court of Federal Claims, 2025

Smith v. Secretary of Health and Human Services

United States Court of Federal Claims · Decided August 11, 2025 · Thomas L. Gowen

Opinion

In the United States Court of Federal Claims OFFICE OF SPECIAL MASTERS Filed: June 9, 2025 * * * * * * * * * * * * * MORGAN SMITH, * * Petitioner, * No. 21-1613V * v. * Special Master Gowen * SECRETARY OF HEALTH * AND HUMAN SERVICES, * * Respondent. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Elizabeth K. Abramson, Mctlaw, Washington, D.C., for petitioner.

Parisa Tabassian, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for respondent.

DECISION ON STIPULATION1 On July 26, 2021, Morgan Smith (“petitioner”) filed a claim for compensation in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.2 Petition (ECF No. 1). Petitioner alleges that as a result of the receiving the tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (“Tdap”) vaccine on May 20, 2019 caused her to suffer neuromyelitis optica (“NMO”). Id. On June 9, 2025, respondent filed a stipulation providing that a decision should be entered awarding compensation to petitioner. Stipulation (ECF No. 49).3 Respondent denies that petitioner’s alleged NMO, any other injury, or her current condition were caused by the Tdap vaccine. Id. at 6. Nevertheless, maintaining their positions, the parties now agree that the issues between them shall be settled and that a decision should be entered awarding compensation to petitioner described in the stipulation, attached hereto as Appendix A.

The stipulation provides: 1) A lump sum payment of $150,000.00, which amount represents compensation for pain and suffering, to be paid through an ACH deposit to petitioner’s counsel’s IOLTA account for prompt disbursement to petitioner; 2) An amount of $25,000.00 to purchase an annuity contract described in paragraph 10 of the stipulation, paid to the life insurance company from which the annuity will be purchased.

These amounts represent compensation for all damages that would be available to petitioner under 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-15(a).

I adopt the parties’ stipulation attached hereto, and award compensation in the amount and on the terms set forth therein. The Clerk of the Court SHALL ENTER JUDGMENT in accordance with the terms of the parties’ stipulation.4

IT IS SO ORDERED.

s/Thomas L. Gowen Thomas L. Gowen Special Master

1 Pursuant to the E-Government Act of 2002, see 44 U.S.C. § 3501 note (2012), because this decision contains a reasoned explanation for the action in this case, I am required to post it to a publicly available website. This decision will appear at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/uscourts/national/cofc or on the Court of Federal Claims website. This means the decision will be available to anyone with access to the Internet. Before the decision is posted on the court’s website, each party has 14 days to file a motion requesting redaction “of any information furnished by that party: (1) that is a trade secret or commercial or financial in substance and is privileged or confidential; or (2) that includes medical files or similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy.” Vaccine Rule 18(b). “An objecting party must provide the court with a proposed redacted version of the decision.” Id. If neither party files a motion for redaction within 14 days, the decision will be posted on the court’s website without any changes. Id. 2 The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is set forth in Part 2 of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, Pub. L. No. 99-660, 100 Stat. 3755, codified as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 300aa-1 to -34 (2012) (Vaccine Act or the Act). All citations in this decision to individual sections of the Vaccine Act are to 42 U.S.C.A. § 300aa. 3 The stipulation was signed using an electronic signature and the electronic signature page was removed as it contains petitioner’s confidential information. 4 Entry of judgment is expedited by each party’s filing notice renouncing the right to seek review. Vaccine Rule 11(a).

Case-law data current through September 30, 2026. Source: CourtListener bulk data.