Joan Najbar Sues Over Deceased Stamp

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A Duluth woman is suing the federal government because a letter that she wrote to her son stationed in Iraq was returned with “DECEASED” errantly stamped on it.

The federal lawsuit was filed last month in Minneapolis by Joan Najbar, a vocal critic of U.S. military policy.

Najbar’s son Sam Eininger was serving with the National Guard in Iraq in 2006 when the letter was returned. She is seeking damages for emotional distress, loss of income, attorneys fees and other expenses.

A claim for $118,000 in damages that she filed with the U.S. Postal Service in 2008 was twice denied. A letter from the Postal Service said its investigation found no negligence.

According to the suit, Najbar mailed a letter to her son on Sept. 29, 2006. It came back to her about two weeks later with “DECEASED” stamped in red on the front of the envelope.

Eininger, 24, spent 22 months in Iraq and is now an environmental sciences student at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

“I was out on patrol, and I got a message to call my mom,” Eininger recalled Tuesday. “I called her immediately after I got back, and she told me what happened. She didn’t sound pleased. I couldn’t blame her.”

Najbar contacted the Red Cross, which “was ultimately able to inform her that her son had not been killed,” the suit said.

“This happened while he was … being shot at in Baghdad. That’s not OK … not to even say oops or sorry,” Najbar, a clinical social worker, said Tuesday.

Najbar has never received an apology or an explanation from the Postal Service, the suit said. She described the incident as “somebody’s cruel little joke.”

Najbar, 58, has publicly challenged U.S. military action in Iraq. In December 2005 she spread red fabric on the Capitol steps in St. Paul in a silent protest and met privately with Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Her son was among 2,600 Minnesota National Guard soldiers Pawlenty had visited in Camp Shelby, Miss., days earlier.