Shirvinski v. United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard (defendant) contracted with SFA, Inc. (defendant) and Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. (Booz Allen) (defendant) on a project to modernize the Coast Guard’s fleet (the Deepwater Project). Mohawk Information Systems and Consulting, Inc. (MISC) was an SFA subcontractor. In March 2008, Adam Shirvinski (plaintiff) entered a private agreement with MISC to provide consulting services on the Deepwater Project. Shirvinski had a tense working relationship with Booz Allen and Coast Guard employees. In August 2008, Coast Guard employee Stephen Hoshowsky (defendant) sent Coast Guard officials an email indicating that Shirvinski had repeatedly overstated his role on the Deepwater Project without properly identifying himself as a contractor. The Coast Guard officials requested that SFA take corrective action against Shirvinski, but SFA instead directed MISC to terminate Shirvinski’s contract, and MISC did so. Shirvinski sued the Coast Guard, Hoshowsky, Booz Allen, and SFA’s successor in federal court, alleging state-law tort claims. Shirvinski’s only claim against the Coast Guard was a defamation claim seeking declaratory relief. The district court dismissed the claims against Hoshowsky and SFA’s successor. The court also dismissed Shirvinski’s claim against the Coast Guard, concluding that it lacked jurisdiction under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) to hear a common-law tort suit for equitable relief. Shirvinski subsequently amended his complaint to assert (1) a federal procedural-due-process claim against the Coast Guard based on the Coast Guard’s alleged request that Shirvinski be removed from the Deepwater Project, which Shirvinski alleged had been accompanied by defamatory allegations about Shirvinski’s character, and (2) state-conspiracy and tortious-interference claims against Booz Allen based on unsupported allegations that a Booz Allen employee had helped draft Hoshowsky’s allegedly defamatory email. The district court granted summary judgment for the Coast Guard and Booz Allen, and Shirvinski appealed.