Laughlin v. Rosenman

• Decision Date: 05 May 1947
• Docket Number: No. 9280.,9280.
• Citation: 82 US App. DC 164,163 F.2d 838
• Parties: LAUGHLIN v. ROSENMAN et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

82 US App. DC 164, 163 F.2d 838 (1947)

LAUGHLIN v. ROSENMAN et al.

No. 9280.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia.

Argued March 5, 1947.

Decided May 5, 1947.

Mr. James J. Laughlin, pro se.

Mr. J. Gregory Bruce, of Washington, D. C., of the Bar of the State of Kentucky, pro hac vice, by special leave of Court, with whom Messrs. George Morris Fay, U. S. Atty., and Sidney S. Sachs, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Washington, D. C., were on the brief, for appellees.

Messrs. Edward M. Curran, U. S. Atty. at the time the record was filed, Daniel B. Maher, Asst. U. S. Atty., and John D. Lane, Asst. U. S. Atty., all of Washington, D. C., also entered appearances for appellees.

Before STEPHENS, WILBUR K. MILLER, and PRETTYMAN, Associate Justices.

STEPHENS, Associate Justice.

This is an appeal from an order of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia dismissing the complaint of the appellant, hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, upon the ground that it fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The complaint is in two counts, the first seeking damages for "malicious prosecution," the second for "interference with civil rights." The first count alleges, in substance and effect, that there was brought to the attention of the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt by the defendant Samuel I. Rosenman, the President's "confidential assistant" and "Special Counsel," a motion derogatory to the President filed by the plaintiff herein in a "so-called sedition case," in the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia,¹ wherein the plaintiff in the instant case was counsel for one Noble; that this angered the President and that at his direction² Rosenman caused the defendant Francis Biddle, Attorney General of the United States, to "concoct a criminal charge" against the plaintiff; that thereupon Rosenman and Biddle and the defendant Oetje John Rogge, Special Assistant to Attorney General Biddle,³ the defendant James V. Bennett, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the defendant Joseph W. Sanford, Warden of the United States Penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia, all conspiring together and acting in concert to this directed end, by promises of leniency induced certain inmates of federal prisons, and, by plying him with liquor, induced one M. Edward Buckley, all approached and interviewed for the defendants by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to testify falsely against the plaintiff, the prison inmates before a grand jury in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, and Buckley at a trial in the said District Court; that upon such false testimony of the prison inmates the plaintiff was by the grand jury on June 2, 1944, indicted for conspiring, contrary to the provisions of 35 Stat. 1113, ch. 321, § 135, Act March 4, 1909, 18 U.S.C.A. § 241, "to concoct a false alibi for one Hilliard Sanders . . . defendant by the plaintiff in 1942"; and that thereafter upon such charge the plaintiff was tried in the said District Court of Maryland and was acquitted. The count alleges that the plaintiff is a citizen of the United States and a legal and voting resident of the state of Indiana, temporarily residing in the District of Columbia, and that he is a member of the bar of the courts of the District of Columbia and of the bar of other courts.⁴ It further alleges that by the aforesaid acts of the defendants he was damaged through impairment of professional standing, loss of business, and expense in defending against the criminal charge upon which, as alleged, he was indicted and tried. The count charges that "the testimony offered before the Grand Jury to bring about the indictment of the plaintiff was known by the defendants to be false and that each of the defendants knowingly, wilfully and maliciously participated in the unlawful conspiracy against the plaintiff. . . ." The count states that "All defendants are sued in their personal capacities."

The allegations of the second count of the complaint, charging the defendants with "interference with civil rights" of the plaintiff, are, in substance and effect, that the defendants named in the first count, conspiring together and acting in concert, maliciously attempted to deny to the plaintiff a fair and impartial trial of the criminal cause referred to in the first count. Specifically, it is alleged that the defendants endeavored "to prevent, impede and interfere with witnesses summoned on behalf of the plaintiff from testifying in the criminal trial," threatening them with punishment if they testified in his behalf and punishing those who did so testify, and on the contrary promising rewards to those who would testify falsely against the plaintiff and actually rewarding those who did so testify. The second count repeats the charge that M. Edward Buckley was induced to give testimony, known by the defendants to be false, against the plaintiff at the criminal trial. The second count is grounded by the plaintiff upon Rev.Stat.1878, §§ 1979, 1980, 8 U.S.C.A. §§ 43, 47. These sections provide as follows:

"Sec. 1979. Every person, who under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.

"Sec. 1980. . . .

"Second. If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire to deter, by force, intimidation, or threat, any party or witness in any court of the United States from attending such court, or from testifying to any matter pending therein, freely, fully, and truthfully, or to injure such party or witness in his person or property on account of his having so attended or testified, or to influence the verdict, presentment, or indictment of any grand or petit juror in any such court, or to injure such juror in his person or property on account of any verdict, presentment, or indictment lawfully assented to by him, or of his being or having been such juror; or if two or more persons conspire for the purpose of impeding, hindering, obstructing, or defeating, in any manner, the due course of justice in any State or Territory, with intent to deny to any citizen the equal protection of the laws, or to injure him or his property for lawfully enforcing, or attempting to enforce, the right of any person, or class of persons, to the equal protection of the laws;

"Third. . . . in any case of conspiracy set forth in this section, if one or more persons engaged therein do, or cause to be done, any act in furtherance of the object of such conspiracy, whereby another is injured in his person or property, or deprived of having and exercising any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States, the party so injured or deprived may have an action for the recovery of damages, occasioned by such injury or deprivation, against any one or more of the conspirators."

In the trial court, "Upon application by plaintiff for leave to amend, counsel for plaintiff and for defendants stipulated that the complaint be deemed amended to contain an allegation that the prosecution of plaintiff was without probable cause." The defendants so stipulating were Rosenman and Rogge, these alone being before the court. None of the other defendants was served or entered appearance, so far as the record shows. The amendment was allowed. The prayer of the complaint was for $100,000 damages against each of the defendants under each count. The dismissal of the complaint as amended was "with prejudice and without further leave to amend."

The ruling of the trial court that the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted was made upon a motion to dismiss filed by the defendants Rosenman and Rogge. Under familiar procedure the trial court, for the purpose of passing upon the legal sufficiency of the complaint, assumed, without determining, the truth of the allegations thereof. For the same purpose we likewise assume, without determining, their truth.

We discuss the question of the sufficiency of the complaint in terms of each of the counts separately.

First count. The sole question presented under this count is whether the rule of immunity from civil liability of a public officer for an injury suffered as a result of acts having "more or less connection with the general matters committed by law to his control or supervision," Spalding v. Vilas, 1896, 161 U.S. 483, 498, 16 S.Ct. 631, 637, 40 L.Ed. 780, or as otherwise phrased, as the result of acts "done within the scope of the officer's duties as defined by law," Cooper v. O'Connor, 1938, 69 App.D.C. 100, 103, 99 F.2d 135, 138, 118 A.L.R. 1440, certiorari denied 1938, 305 U.S. 643, 59 S.Ct. 146, 83 L.Ed. 414, is made inapplicable to the defendants in the instant case because, as alleged, they, from ulterior motives, knowingly and wilfully concocted false testimony against the plaintiff. This is the only question argued on the appeal either orally or in the brief of the plaintiff.⁵ It is not asserted that the public offices which the several defendants are alleged to have occupied were not within the ambit of the rule of immunity, or that the several defendants did not occupy such offices at the time of the acts complained of. It is not asserted that the acts of procuring evidence and presenting the same to a grand jury and prosecuting a case upon which an indictment is returned are not within the class of acts which the Attorney General is empowered to perform or that the acts of permitting the interviewing of prison inmates by agents of the Attorney General for the purpose of procuring evidence are not within the scope of the official duties of the Director of the Bureau of...