Opinion ID: 536159
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Heightened Pleading Standard Applied to Siegert's Claim of Unconstitutional Motive

Text: 42 Siegert's central contention, of course, is that defendant wrote the letter with bad faith and malice; and in light of our analysis immediately above, it represents the only basis on which he can hope to overcome Gilley's claim of privilege. We assume, without deciding, that such bad faith motivation would suffice to make Gilley's actions in writing the letter a violation of Siegert's constitutional rights, and that the process given by the credentialing review was not adequate to meet due process requirements. Nonetheless, we find that the invalidating motivation has not been pleaded with the offer of noncircumstantial proof required to satisfy our heightened pleading standard. Cf. Whitacre, 890 F.2d at 1171. 43 Siegert's allegation of malice is unsupported by any evidence beyond innuendo about long-standing and consistent professional and personal friction between defendant and himself. Amended Complaint, para. 6. The complaint's shortcoming is most evident in its allegations that Gilley had acted in bad faith when he described Siegert as inept, unethical, and untrustworthy. Id. at para. 11. It merely asserts (and reasserts) that in making the statement he knew [it] to be false or [made it] with reckless disregard as to whether it was true, id. at paras. 11 and 23, and that he maliciously and in bad faith attempted to destroy ... plaintiff's ability to earn a livelihood as a clinical psychologist. Id. at para. 21. Nor did the affidavit submitted by Siegert in support of his Statement of Material Facts at Issue add anything more tangible to the record than the assertions that prior to the time Gilley became his supervisor, he had received exemplary job performance ratings, had never had his professional integrity questioned, and that his resistance to certain changes Gilley wished to make in St. Elizabeths' programs was the source of Gilley's hostility towards him. Affidavit of Frederick A. Siegert dated January 28, 1988, paras. 4-5. 44 As we emphasized in Hobson, conclusory allegations of this sort will not suffice to subject government officials to the burdens of discovery or trial. 737 F.2d at 29-30. Hobson itself provides an example of allegations of direct evidence of improper motivation that will overcome a defense of qualified immunity. In that case, it was alleged that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and District of Columbia law enforcement authorities had violated plaintiffs' First and Fifth Amendment rights pursuant to an organized plan, known as COINTELPRO-New Left, that was designed to conduct surveillance upon and to cause disruption of plaintiffs' protected political activities. Id. at 27. The complaint referred to specific memoranda admitting that the program's express purpose was to disrupt plaintiffs' political activities. Id. at 10. We easily found these allegations to be neither general, conclusory, nor devoid of factual support. Id. at 31. 45 Siegert has alleged nothing remotely comparable. His assertions are no less inferential than the factual support offered by the plaintiffs in Martin that we rejected as insufficient. 812 F.2d at 1434-35. In that case, which involved charges of malicious prosecution by District of Columbia police officers, the plaintiff alleged that the defendants had reviewed video tapes of newscasts showing policemen beating him with nightsticks, that the plaintiff was the only person identified and marked for prosecution as a result of that review, that the defendants had worked closely with the U.S. Attorney in deciding on his subsequent arrest and prosecution, and that an unusually large team of officers had effected his arrest. 812 F.2d at 1435. We remarked that although in the ordinary case such circumstantial evidence might allow a plaintiff to remain in court, in light of Harlow, it was insufficient to override a defense of qualified immunity. While it is true that in Martin we allowed limited discovery, we did so only as a one-time exception because of the special exigencies in that case. Whitacre, 890 F.2d at 1171 n. 4 (citing Bartlett v. Bowen, 824 F.2d 1240, 1245 (D.C.Cir.1987)). 46 It might be argued, nevertheless, that the highly restricted discovery ordered by the district court in this case is supported by the Supreme Court's decision in Anderson. In a footnote to its opinion, the Court suggested that if a plaintiff alleges actions that no reasonable official could believe lawful, and the defendant in turn alleges he in fact took different actions that a reasonable official could believe lawful, then limited discovery tailored specifically to the question of [defendant's] qualified immunity might be necessary. 483 U.S. at 646-47 n. 6, 107 S.Ct. at 3042 n. 6. This is not the situation before us. The purpose of the inquiry ordered by the district court in this case was not to establish the factual basis for determining the objective legal reasonableness of Gilley's actions, but to inquire into their motivation. This is precisely the kind of subjective inquiry that Harlow found impermissible. 457 U.S. at 817, 102 S.Ct. at 2737.