Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Litigation against US State Department

I'm sorry to hear about your divorce, but I don't see how you can blame the government, let alone hold it liable.

The federal government is immune from civil liability except where it has agreed to waive that immunity. The Federal Tort Claims Act did just that as to many tort actions, and says that the government may be held liable for much wrongful conduct.

If you were to sue you would probably have to bring a negligence action, since your claim is that the government advised you incorrectly. Damages in negligence actions are usually limited to what was reasonably foreseeable at the time, and I very much doubt that the consular employee could reasonably have foreseen that giving your wife incorrect advice would lead to a divorce.

There are other serious problems you would have to overcome, including causation (your divorce resulted from someone's decision to end the marriage, not from the consular employee's mistake) and standing (your wife is the one who received the bad advice, so she may be the only one who could bring such a suit even in theory).

Re: Litigation against US State Department

There is no case.

1. The government is generally immune from simple negligence committed by its employees.

2. The cause of action you describe used to be known as alienation of affection - essentially, contributing or causing the breakup of a romantic relationship. As far as I know, no U.S. jurisdiction has recognized such a claim for probably a century or more.

Your ex wife was free (as you were) to seek a divorce at any time. I presume this divorce was handling by a California court; if so, then understand that in California, divorce is no fault (in other words, either one of you could have obtained a divorce for any reason - or no reason - at all).