Sigler v. LeVan
| Decision Date | 12 March 1980 |
| Docket Number | N-79-918.,Civ. A. No. N-78-1237 |
| Citation | 485 F. Supp. 185 |
| Parties | Ilse M. SIGLER, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Ralph J. Sigler, Deceased and Ilse M. Sigler, Individually and Karin (Sigler) Mears, Individually v. C. J. LeVAN, Individually and as Major General, United States Army; Donald B. Grimes, Individually and as Colonel, United States Army; H. R. Aarons, Individually and as Major General, United States Army; Noel Jones, Individually and as Chief, Special Operations Division, U. S. Army; Carlos Zapata, Individually and as Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army; Francis (Joe) Prasek, Individually and as Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation; Lewis Martel, Individually and as Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army; John Schaffstall, Individually and as Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army; Donnall J. Drake, Individually and as Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army; Odell L. King, Individually and as Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army; Peter Conway, Individually and as Project Officer, U. S. Army Intelligence; Clifford Alexander, Secretary of the Army; Party or Parties Unknown who are or were Members of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1976; Party or Parties Unknown who are or were Members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1976; and Party or Parties Unknown who are or were Members of the United States Army in 1976. Ilse M. SIGLER, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Ralph J. Sigler, Deceased and Ilse M. Sigler, Individually and Karin (Sigler) Mears, Individually v. H. R. AARONS, Individually and as Major General, United States Army Deputy Director, Defense Intelligence Agency and Donald B. Grimes, Individually and as Colonel, United States Army and Noel Jones, Individually and as Chief, Special Operations Division, U. S. Army Intelligence Agency and Lewis Martel, Individually and as Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army and John Schaffstall, Individually and as Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army and Odell L. King, Individually and as Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army and Donnall J. Drake, Individually and as Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army and Peter Conway, Individually and as Project Officer, U. S. Army Intelligence and Carlos Zapata, Individually and as Chief Warrant Officer, United States Army and Party or Parties unknown who are or were Members of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1976 and Party or Parties Unknown who are or were Members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1976 and Party or Parties Unknown who are or who were Members of the United States Army in 1976. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maryland |
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James E. Kenkel and William C. Brennan, Jr., College Park, Md., for plaintiffs.
James M. Kramon, Baltimore, Md., Aubrey M. Daniel, III, and Douglas R. Marvin, Washington, D. C., for defendant LeVan.
Joseph A. Schwartz, III, Baltimore, Md., and James F. Neal and Aubrey B. Harwell, Jr., Nashville, Tenn., and David R. Boyd, Washington, D. C., for defendants Grimes, Aaron, Jones, Martel, Schaffstall, Conway, Drake and King.
Richard R. Beauchemin, Baltimore, Md., and Robert D. Earp, El Paso, Tex., for defendant Zapata.
Alan I. Baron and Ellen Scalettar, Baltimore, Md., for defendant Prasek.
Alice Daniel, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., Barbara B. O'Malley, R. John Seibert and Raymond M. Larizza, Attys., U. S. Dept. Justice, Washington, D. C., Russell T. Baker, Jr., U. S. Atty. for the District of Maryland and Lynne A. Battaglia, Asst. U. S. Atty., Baltimore, Md., for defendant Alexander.
This litigation involves two actions for damages and injunctive relief arising out of the death of Ralph J. Sigler, an Army counterintelligence agent. Mr. Sigler died by electrocution on April 13, 1976, in a motel room located near Fort Meade, Maryland. The plaintiffs are his wife and daughter. The defendants are the Secretary of the Army, ten present or former officers of the United States Army, a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and parties unknown who are or were members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the FBI, and the United States Army in 1976.3
These two actions were consolidated by this Court on September 20, 1979 for the purposes of pleadings, motions, and discovery; the Court reserved until a later time the decision of whether to consolidate these actions for all other purposes. The matter is presently before the Court on the defendants' motions to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Court conducted a hearing on these motions on October 11, 1979. At that time, the Court requested supplemental briefs on certain issues; having received those briefs, the Court is prepared to render a decision.
For the purposes of a Rule 12(b) motion, this Court must accept as true the facts alleged in the plaintiffs' complaint, as well as all reasonable inferences that may be deduced from those allegations favorable to the plaintiff. Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974); Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957).
From the late 1960's until his death on April 13, 1976, Mr. Sigler was a counterintelligence agent for the United States Army. His duties included the selling of information concerning United States Army radar and missile systems to intelligence agents of various foreign powers. Mr. Sigler's mission was twofold in nature. First, a portion of the information sold to these foreign powers was deliberately designed to mislead them as to the capability of the Army's radar and missile systems. Secondly, Mr. Sigler was to identify as many foreign intelligence operatives as possible to his superiors.
In 1974, Mr. Sigler was approaching thirty years of active duty with the Army (having enlisted in 1947) and was contemplating retirement. He began to assemble his papers, effects, and memorabilia with the apparent intention of writing a book, after he retired, on his intelligence career. The Army evidently learned of his intentions and in March 1976 ordered Mr. Sigler to San Francisco, California for a debriefing session where he was given a polygraph test. Subsequently, the Army ordered Mr. Sigler to report to Fort Meade, Maryland, the headquarters of the United States Army Intelligence Agency. Mr. Sigler arrived in the Fort Meade area on April 4, 1976.
For the next nine days, Army intelligence officers confined Mr. Sigler to two motel rooms in the Fort Meade area and "subjected Sigler to severe emotional distress by the use of extensive questioning, threats and intimidations." Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint, Civil Action No. N-78-1237 at 17. Apparently this interrogation focused on Mr. Sigler's intention to write his memoirs and the nature and location of the materials he had collected to assist him in writing his book.
During this time, defendant Army Intelligence Officer Louis Martel pressured Mr. Sigler into acknowledging the existence and location of the memoirs material at the Sigler residence in El Paso, Texas. Defendant Martel then coerced Mr. Sigler into calling his wife, Ilse M. Sigler, at their home and instructing her to make certain of the memoirs material available to defendant Army Intelligence Officer John Schaffstall. On April 8, 1976, defendant Schaffstall appeared at the Sigler residence, was granted entrance by Mrs. Sigler, and procured the material in question. Defendant Schaffstall returned to Fort Meade the following day with the material. The interrogation of Mr. Sigler by the defendant counterintelligence agents continued and was of an "extreme and outrageous" nature. Amended Complaint, supra at 21. Certain papers and effects belonging to Mr. Sigler were allegedly taken from him during the interrogation.
On April 13, 1976, Mr. Sigler was found dead in a motel room in the Fort Meade area. Official investigations by the Army and the Maryland State Police concluded that Mr. Sigler had committed suicide by wrapping the ends of a stripped electrical lamp cord around his upper arms, plugging the cord into a wall socket, and flipping on the wall switch, which resulted in his death by electrocution. The plaintiffs contend that the defendants were responsible for Mr. Sigler's death by "either 1) causing a current of electricity to pass through his body or 2) placing him in an extreme position of danger by virtue of the continuous emotional strain to which he had been subjected and then failing to protect him" from electrocuting himself. Amended Complaint, supra at 17-18.
The plaintiffs have asserted two categories of claims in this matter. The first category represents claims on behalf of Mr. Sigler's estate for alleged injuries to Mr. Sigler and includes claims for (1) intentional infliction of emotional distress; (2) false imprisonment; (3) conversion; (4) gross negligence; (5) wrongful death; (6) violations of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution; (7) assault and battery; and (8) replevin. The second category of claims represents alleged injuries to Mrs. Sigler and her daughter individually, and includes claims for (1) conversion; (2) replevin; and (3) violations of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The two cases consolidated here seek combined damages of over $100 million against the defendants, in addition to injunctive relief against the Secretary of the Army in the form of an order requiring him to return to the plaintiffs the materials taken from the Sigler residence and from the Fort Meade motel room.
The Court will consider separately the motions to dismiss as they apply to the two categories of claims.
All of the defendants, except Special Agent Francis (Joe) Prasek of the FBI and the...
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