110
Opinion of the Court
"March 1989 was too early. The suit did not linger, awaiting administrative action. Unless McNeil began a fresh suit within six months after July 21, 1989, he loses." 964 F. 2d 647, 648-649 (1992).
The court reviewed the materials filed in August 1989 and concluded that the District Court had not committed plain error in refusing to construe them as having commenced a new action.5
Because decisions in other Circuits permit a prematurely filed FTCA action to proceed if no substantial progress has taken place in the litigation before the administrative remedies are exhausted, see Kubrick v. United States, 581 F. 2d 1092, 1098 (CA3 1978), rev'd on other grounds, 444 U. S. 111 (1979), and Celestine v. Veterans Administration Hospital, 746 F. 2d 1360, 1363 (CA8 1984),6 we granted certiorari to resolve the conflict. 506 U. S. 1074 (1993).
II
As the case comes to us, we assume that the Court of Appeals correctly held that nothing done by petitioner after the denial of his administrative claim on July 21, 1989, constituted the commencement of a new action. The narrow question before us is whether his action was timely either be-5 In dissent, Judge Ripple expressed the opinion that petitioner had properly raised the issue in the District Court and on appeal, 964 F. 2d, at 649, n. 1, and that in any event it was "clear that the plaintiff, a prisoner proceeding pro se, attempted to refile the action after the denial of the administrative claim." Id., at 649. Our grant of certiorari did not encompass the question whether a new action had been filed in August and we therefore express no opinion as to the correctness of the Court of Appeals' ruling on that issue.
6 Decisions in the Fifth and Ninth Circuits agree with the position taken in the Seventh Circuit in this case. See Gregory v. Mitchell, 634 F. 2d 199, 204 (CA5 1981); Reynolds v. United States, 748 F. 2d 291, 292 (CA5 1984); Jerves v. United States, 966 F. 2d 517, 521 (CA9 1992).
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