Legal Question in Family Law in California

Can I sue the The consulate of USA and State Department for grave mishandling of my daughters passports by the American Consulate in Algiers, who without checking my parental rights to have these passports with me, these passports that I obtained legally, and which were with me at all times (again legally), and I had the right to use them (Legally) and have used them legally. These passports were falsely reported lost/stolen in order to cancel them without my knowledge, without my consent, and without regards to my rights. These passports were canceled and to make matters worse, the American Consulate in Algiers did not care to inform me about the cancellation, and I had to find out in the middle of my yearly vacation (again a legal right) with my daughters in France by interpol. This unfortunate series of actions of the American Consulate in Algiers were the trigger of great emotional harm to me (an American citizen) and my two minor children( both american citizens), who instead of spending quality time with their father, and they don�t get to have much of it, their vacation turned into a unbearable episode. The state department warns all americans against travel to Algeria, but fails to let us go home to the USA in a prompt time. We are now in transit in a country with a tourist visa that will expire soon, I have lost thousands of dollars while waiting to get my children back to the USA, and now I am losing salary day after day and I may even lose my employment. This is very disturbing.


Asked on 9/02/14, 1:28 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Kelvin Green The Law Office of Kelvin Green

First when it comes to the types of duties the US government performs on passports, there is substantial immunity from lawsuit. Unfortunately you make several conclusions without any information to back up the claims. Nothing you posted indicates how the State Department did anything more than what they are supposed to do. If if they did not completely do their due diligence, it only rises to negligence and in a government context like you are talking about negligence won't be the basis for any suit. The only chance you have with a suit would to be to somehow show how specific individuals under color of law deprived you of a constitutional right. I really can't see what civil right they violated, even if they did if it is not a clearly established right with clear definitions, they would most likely end up with qualified immunity. The State Dept should have easily rectified the error and issued new (temp) passports at a consulate for travel. At the end of the day can you sue? Yes ! Will you win ? You probably would not even survive a motion to dismiss. I just don't think there is much that can be done....Sorry

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Answered on 9/02/14, 5:42 pm


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