The Use of the Constructive Trust Remedy in Snepp
![handle is hein.journals/problj4 and id is 15 raw text is: Lucchesi, 330 Ill. App. 506, 71 N.E.2d 920 (1947)
(father killed in war, paternal grandparents
made trustees and awarded visitation).
12. 140 N.J. Super. 91, 355 A.2d 211 (1976).
13. Id. at 94-95.
14. See, e.g., Jones v. Allen, 277 So. 2d 599
(Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1973) (where severance by
adoption was expectedIo be complete because,
the court said, the law should expect the child to
honor only her new mother and father).
15. Poe v. Case, 263 Ark. 488, 565 S.W.2d 612
(1978); In re Adoption of Gardiner, 287 N.W.2d
555 (Iowa 1980); Smith v Trosclair, 321 So. 2d
514 (La. 1975), Acker v. Barnes, 33 N.C. App.
750, 236 S.E.2d 715, cert. denied, 293 N.C. 360,
238 S.E.2d 149 (1977); DeWeese v. Crawford, 520
S.W.2d 522 (Tex. Ct. App. 1975).
16. 66 N.J. 426, 433, 332 A.2d 199 (1975).
(N.J.S.A. 9: 2-7.1, enacted in 1972, provided for
grandparental visitation when the parent died.
In 1973, visitation rights were expanded to apply
to situations of divorce and separation).
17. Id. at 435.
18. Id. at 436.
19. Id. at 437
20. 50 Ohio App. 2d 83, 90, 361 N.E.2d 525
(1976).
21. Newsweek, The Parent Gap, Sept. 22, 1975,
at 48-56.
22. Roquemore v. Roquemore, 275 Cal. App.
2d 912, 80 Cal. Rptr. 432 (1969).
23. Reeves v. Bailey, 53 Cal. App. 3d 1019, 126
Cal. Rptr. 51 (1975).
24. People ex. rel. Simmons v. Sheriden, 414
N.Y.S.2d 83, 98 Misc. 2d 328 (S. Ct. 1979).
25. Scranton v. Hutter, 40 A.D.2d 296, 339
N.Y.S.2d 708 (1973).
26. Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 10, § 60.16(3) (West
1971).
27. Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 10, § 5 (Supp. 1975).
See Leake v. Grissom, 614 P.2d 1107 (Okla.
1980).
28. See In re Adoption of Hensley, 607 S.W.2d
80 (Ark. App. 1980) (where such a standard,
though not mandated in the Arkansas statute,
was implied by the courts).
29. 68 A.B.A.J. 33 (1982).
(. 'Sparks v. Wigglesworth, 79 CA-83-MR
(Ky. Ct. App. 1979), reh'g granted, 591 S.W.2d
372 (1979).
31. E.g., Tobler v. Tobler, 78 Idaho 218, 299
P.2d 490 (1956); In re Griffiths, 47 Ohio App. 2d
238, 353 N.E.2d 884 (1975).
THE USE OF THE CONSTRUCTIVE TRUST
REMEDY IN SNEPP
by Susan Wilf*
I. INTRODUCTION
In Snep': Unite States, the Supreme Court-held that
,Frank Snepp, a former CIA agent, had breached his
fiduciary duty to the CIA when he published a book2
concerning certain CIA activities without submitting his
manuscript for prepublication review. The Court there-
fore imposed a constructive trust, for the benefit of the
government, on the present and future proceeds of his
book. In its per curiam decision, the Court had to con-
sider complex first amendment and fiduciary law is-
sues,3 as well as the constructive trust remedy it im-
posed. This case note will analyze the use of the
constructive trust, in order to give lower courts some
guidance on how to resolve similar issues.
II. BACKGROUND
A. Factual
Frank Snepp signed a secrecy agreement in 1968,
promising not to publish . . . any information or ma-
terial relating to the Agency . . . either during or after
. . . [his] term of employment . . without specific
approval by the Agency.' Subsequently, he was as-
signed to two tours of duty in Vietnam, including the
time that the United States withdrew from participation
in the war and the CIA and the military liquidated their
operations in that locale.' When Snepp resigned from
the CIA in 1976, he signed a termination secrecy agree-
ment, promising not to publish any classified informa-
tion or any information concerning intelligence or CIA
that has not been made public by the CIA.'
In November 1977, Snepp's book, Decent Interval, was
published without prior CIA review and approval. The
book
[ius a highly critical account of the United States'
withdrawal from Vietnam at the close of the war
and it also contains allegations that the CIA's
intelligence reporting from Vietnam was fabri-
cated and distorted, that the CIA manipulated
press reporting from Vietnam by providing false
information to reporters, that CIA officials in
Vietnamrngaged irA cormpt practices, and that
the CIA mishandled the evacuation from Viet-
nam by failing to evacuate its indigenous agents
and employees.
The government initiated suit against Snepp on Feb-
ruary 15, 1978, alleging breach of contract.' The govern-
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