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LITIGATION REPORT

[[underlined]] New Cases [[/underlined]]

1. [[underlined]] Dorosheff [[/underlined]] v. [[underlined]] United States [[/underlined]]

This is an action for personal injury brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The plaintiff, a visitor to the Smithsonian, suffered a fall in the Arts and Industries Building in November 1976. When her administrative claim for damages was denied because of a finding of no negligence on the part of the Institution, she filed suit in the U. S. District Court in November 1978, seeking $50,000 in damages. The Justice Department is handling this matter.

2. [[underlined]] Hart [[/underlined]] v. [[underlined]] National Collection of Fine Arts of the Smithsonian Institution [[/underlined]]

The National Collection of Fine Arts is named as a beneficiary in a handwritten document executed by Alma W. Thomas in February 1978, just prior to her death. This document was presented to the Probate Court of the District of Columbia by the Smithsonian as a possible codicil to a will executed by Ms. Thomas in July 1977. Harold Hart, named as executor in the 1977 will, has filed with the Probate Court a Complaint to Deny Probate to the 1978 document. At issue is the validity of the 1978 "codicil." No monetary damagers are involved.

3. [[underlined]]Lacey Act Violations at the National Zoological Park [[/underlined]]

It was reported in 1977 that certain employees of the National Zoological Park had been included in an investigation by the U. S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for violations of laws prohibiting the acquisition of animals unlawfully exported from their countries of origin (the Lacey Act, 18 U.S.C. S43). However, the criminal indictments resulting from that investigation did not name any NZP personnel. The Smithsonian had retained private counsel experienced in criminal matters to represent the employees.

Civil penalty proceedings now have been instituted against two employees of the Zoo for alleged negligent purchasing of animals protected by the Lacey Act. The Notices of Violation issued by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, propose the assessment of $2,600 in penalties against each of the employees. Since the employees made the purchases for the NZP in the course and scope of their employment, the Smithsonian has continued to retain the same private counsel to defend the employees in the present administrative proceedings within the Interior Department and in any subsequent appeals.