Doe v. United States

197 F. Supp. 3d 933, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98678, 2016 WL 3919666
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedJune 30, 2016
DocketCivil Action No. H-15-02414
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 197 F. Supp. 3d 933 (Doe v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doe v. United States, 197 F. Supp. 3d 933, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98678, 2016 WL 3919666 (S.D. Tex. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER

DAVID HITTNER, United States District Judge

Pending before the Court is Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss (Document No. 9). Having considered the motion, submissions, and applicable law, the Court determines that the motion should be granted.

I. BACKGROUND

This case arises from a series of allegations made by prosecutors that allegedly identified and accused Plaintiff John Doe (“Doe”) in the criminal case United States v. Stanley.1 In Count Two of that case, [936]*936Albert J. Stanley (“Stanley”) pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 371. Stanley was charged with a bribery scheme involving various international natural gas projects, a major natural gas contractor corporation and its successor corporation, and various consulting firms controlled by Stanley’s alleged co-conspirator (the “LNG Consultant”).

In the Information filed August 29, 2008, the Government described the LNG Consultant as a dual citizen of the United States and Lebanon, who was an employee of an unnamed contractor corporation from about 1977 until 1988. In 1988, the LNG Consultant resigned and became a consultant to that contractor and its successor company.2 The Information accused the LNG Consultant and Stanley of engaging in a scheme where consulting firms the LNG Consultant controlled were paid lucrative fees to obtain natural gas contracts for the contractor corporations, and the consulting firms paid kickbacks to Stanley.

In the Plea Agreement filed September 3, 2008, the Government repeated the above allegations and added that one of the companies controlled by the LNG Consultant was a “Lebanese Consulting Company,” and that the specific projects involved in the scheme were “Trains 1 and 2 of the Bonny Island Project” and “the Malaysia Tiga LNG project.” In Stanley’s re-arraignment hearing on September 3, 2008, the Government referred to the LNG Consultant and noted he was dual citizen of Lebanon and the United States, In Stanley’s sentencing hearing on February 23, 2012. the prosecutor did not repeat the details of the LNG Consultant’s nationality or employment history, but accused him, of engaging in bid-rigging with Stanley.

Doe alleges that the Government’s “description of the LNG Consultant identified [Doe] in all respects except by name.”3 In late 2014, Doe’s counsel unsuccessfully inquired with the Department of Justice to determine if any indictment or investigation was in place or pending against Doc. On August 20, 2015, Doe filed suit in this Court alleging a violation of his Fifth Amendment due process rights. Doe seeks a declaration that his rights have been violated and expungement of the prosecu-torial statements that allegedly identified and accused him of criminal conduct. On October 20, 2015, the Government moved to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6).

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

A. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 18(b)(1)

Motions filed pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) allow a party to challenge the subject matter jurisdiction of the district court. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1). “A case is properly dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction when the court lacks the statutory or constitutional power to adjudicate the case.” Home Builders Ass’n of Miss., Inc. v. City of Madison, Miss,, 143 F.3d 1006, 1010 (5th Cir.1998). “Lack of subject matter jurisdiction may be found in any one of three instances: (1) the complaint alone; (2) the complaint supplemented by undisputed facts evidenced in the record; or (3) the complaint supplemented by undisputed facts plus the court’s resolution of disputed facts,” Ramming v. United States, 281 F.3d 158, 161 [937]*937(5th Cir.2001) (per curiam). “The burden of proof for a Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss is on the party asserting jurisdiction.” Id.

B. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6)

Rule 12(b)(6) allows dismissal if a plaintiff fails “to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.” Fed, R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). Under Rule 8(a)(2), a pleading must contain “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). Although “the pleading standard Rule 8 announces does not require ‘detailed factual allegations/ .., it demands more than ... ‘labels and conclusions.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). “ ‘[A] formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.’ ” Id.

In deciding a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, “[t]he ‘court accepts all well-pleaded facts as true, viewing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.’ ” In re Katrina Canal Breaches Litig., 495 F.3d 191, 205 (5th Cir.2007) (quoting Martin K. Eby Constr. Co. v. Dallas Area Rapid Transit, 369 F.3d 464, 467 (5th Cir.2004)). To survive the motion, a plaintiff must plead “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955. “Conversely, ‘when the allegations in a complaint, however true, could not raise a claim of entitlement to relief, this basic deficiency should... be exposed at the point of minimum expenditure of time and money by the parties and the court.’ ” Cuvillier v. Taylor, 503 F.3d 397, 401 (5th Cir.2007) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 558, 127 S.Ct. 1955).

III. LAW & ANALYSIS

Expungement is sometimes an appropriate remedy where third parties are identified as co-conspirators in public court records. United States v. Holy Land Found. For Relief and Dev., 624 F.3d 685, 691 (5th Cir.2010). The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit first applied this principle in United States v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Untitled Case
S.D. Mississippi, 2026
Mendoza v. DeJoy
W.D. Texas, 2024
Hearn v. McCraw
Fifth Circuit, 2021
Patrick v. Fuelling
N.D. Illinois, 2021

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
197 F. Supp. 3d 933, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98678, 2016 WL 3919666, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doe-v-united-states-txsd-2016.