ole
12-01-2009, 04:15 PM
A critic of the U.S. military policy is suing the federal government because a letter that she wrote to her serviceman son stationed in Iraq was returned with "DECEASED" errantly stamped on it in red letters.
The lawsuit filed last month in Minneapolis federal court by Joan Najbar, of Duluth, claims that "as a result of receiving the letter indicating that her son was dead, Ms. Najbar suffered emotional distress with physical manifestations."
Najbar, whose son Sam Eininger was serving with the National Guard when the letter was returned in 2006, is seeking relief from damages including emotional distress, loss of income, attorneys fees and other expenses and "additional damages to be proven at trial."
A claim Najbar filed in 2008 with the U.S. Postal Service sought $118,000 in damages. That claim was twice denied. A letter from the Postal Service said its investigation found no negligence.
Eininger, 24, an environmental sciences student at University of Minnesota, Duluth, student, said Tuesday that his mother went through "several hours" fearing that he had been killed.
"I was out on patrol, and I got a message to call my mom," Eininger recalled. "I called her immediately after I got back, and she told me what happened. She didn't sound pleased. I couldn't blame her."
Eininger, who spent 22 months in Iraq and will wrap up his time in the Guard in March after six years, said he's never been given an explanation for his premature demise, speculating, "Just some [jerk] pulling a prank, I guess."
Najbar, a clinical social worker, said Tuesday that she was left to wonder whether her son was safe from "when I got the letter in the morning [until] I got his call that evening."
"This happened while he was ... being shot at in Baghdad," said Najbar.
"That's not OK ... not to even say oops or sorry."
According to the suit:
Najbar mailed a letter to her son on Sept. 29, 2006. It came back to her about two weeks later with "DECEASED" stamped in red on the front of the envelope.
She contacted the Red Cross about the fate of her son, and "the Red Cross was ultimately able to inform her that her son had not been killed."
The suit says that letters sent to service members can only be stamped "DECEASED" once "absolute verification" has been obtained in order to "prevent inadvertent disclosure of the casualty."
Najbar, 58, has never received an apology from the Postal Service or a reason for why the letter was mistakenly stamped, an act that the suit contends is "extreme and outrageous conduct and exceeds the boundaries of decency."
Soon after the letter came back, Najbar said, "I think this is somebody's cruel, little joke." For the past several years, Najbar has publicly challenged U.S. military action in Iraq. In December 2005, she spread a red fabric on the Capitol steps in St. Paul in a silent protest. She met that day with privately with Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Her son was among the 2,600 Minnesota National Guard soldiers that Pawlenty visited in Camp Shelby, Miss., just a few days earlier.
Najbar's attorney, Jeff Eckland in Minneapolis, said he is looking into whether the stamping of the envelope is somehow connected to Najbar's war protest a few days earlier on the steps of the main post office in Duluth.
http://www.startribune.com/local/78218387.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD 3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciaec8O7EyUsl
The lawsuit filed last month in Minneapolis federal court by Joan Najbar, of Duluth, claims that "as a result of receiving the letter indicating that her son was dead, Ms. Najbar suffered emotional distress with physical manifestations."
Najbar, whose son Sam Eininger was serving with the National Guard when the letter was returned in 2006, is seeking relief from damages including emotional distress, loss of income, attorneys fees and other expenses and "additional damages to be proven at trial."
A claim Najbar filed in 2008 with the U.S. Postal Service sought $118,000 in damages. That claim was twice denied. A letter from the Postal Service said its investigation found no negligence.
Eininger, 24, an environmental sciences student at University of Minnesota, Duluth, student, said Tuesday that his mother went through "several hours" fearing that he had been killed.
"I was out on patrol, and I got a message to call my mom," Eininger recalled. "I called her immediately after I got back, and she told me what happened. She didn't sound pleased. I couldn't blame her."
Eininger, who spent 22 months in Iraq and will wrap up his time in the Guard in March after six years, said he's never been given an explanation for his premature demise, speculating, "Just some [jerk] pulling a prank, I guess."
Najbar, a clinical social worker, said Tuesday that she was left to wonder whether her son was safe from "when I got the letter in the morning [until] I got his call that evening."
"This happened while he was ... being shot at in Baghdad," said Najbar.
"That's not OK ... not to even say oops or sorry."
According to the suit:
Najbar mailed a letter to her son on Sept. 29, 2006. It came back to her about two weeks later with "DECEASED" stamped in red on the front of the envelope.
She contacted the Red Cross about the fate of her son, and "the Red Cross was ultimately able to inform her that her son had not been killed."
The suit says that letters sent to service members can only be stamped "DECEASED" once "absolute verification" has been obtained in order to "prevent inadvertent disclosure of the casualty."
Najbar, 58, has never received an apology from the Postal Service or a reason for why the letter was mistakenly stamped, an act that the suit contends is "extreme and outrageous conduct and exceeds the boundaries of decency."
Soon after the letter came back, Najbar said, "I think this is somebody's cruel, little joke." For the past several years, Najbar has publicly challenged U.S. military action in Iraq. In December 2005, she spread a red fabric on the Capitol steps in St. Paul in a silent protest. She met that day with privately with Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Her son was among the 2,600 Minnesota National Guard soldiers that Pawlenty visited in Camp Shelby, Miss., just a few days earlier.
Najbar's attorney, Jeff Eckland in Minneapolis, said he is looking into whether the stamping of the envelope is somehow connected to Najbar's war protest a few days earlier on the steps of the main post office in Duluth.
http://www.startribune.com/local/78218387.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD 3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciaec8O7EyUsl