Every Friday on GovExec.com, Legal Briefs reviews cases that involve, or provide valuable lessons to, federal managers. We report on the decisions of a wide range of review panels, including the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Federal Labor Relations Authority and federal courts.
James Billinger, a federal employee who spent 25 years working for the House Joint Committee on Taxation, retired after 31 years of total federal service in February 1997.
Upon retiring, Billinger asked that his unused sick leave be included in the computation of his Civil Service Retirement System annuity. The Office of Personnel Management denied Billinger's request.
The law governing such cases says that unused sick leave can be credited to a retiring employee's annuity as long as the employee is under a formal leave system that is defined by law, regulation or written rules.
According to OPM, the Joint Committee's leave system wasn't a formal one, so Billinger didn't qualify for the sick leave credit. Billinger pointed to the Joint Committee's memoranda and policy manual as evidence that written rules existed for its sick leave program, thereby qualifying it as a formal leave system.
The case went to the Merit Systems Protection Board. There an administrative judge issued a decision agreeing with Billinger, but upon appeal, the Board overturned the judge's ruling and agreed with OPM.
Next, the case went to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The court this month reversed MSPB's final decision, saying the Joint Committee's memos and policy manual qualified as written rules for a sick leave program. Billinger was finally allowed to include his unused sick leave in the computation of his retirement annuity.
Lesson: If it's written, it's formal.
James L. Billinger v. Office of Personnel Management (99-3241), U.S. Court of Appeals for the federal circuit , March 22, 2000.
Double Decade Denial
Back in 1982, when "Family Ties" was on the tube and Madonna was in her twenties, Michael Hubbard, a former detective for the Washington, D.C., metro police, applied for a job as a criminal investigator with the Environmental Protection Agency. Hubbard got the job-in 1993. He spent the 11 years in between suing the EPA for not hiring him when he first applied. Hubbard suspected the agency had denied him the position because he had been a whistleblower at his previous job.
Though Hubbard eventually won his case in D.C. district court and was hired, he was denied back pay for the interim 11 years. The Office of Special Counsel intervened on his behalf and tried to get Hubbard back pay by appealing to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
Over the years, the various regulations governing back pay changed, but none specified that back pay can be awarded to applicants to jobs, MSPB ruled. Besides, MSPB said, it didn't have the authority to order back pay in Hubbard's case, because it happened before 1994, the year in which the board was authorized to award back pay and consequential damages.
Hubbard had also requested that EPA post notices regionally and at headquarters admitting its misconduct along with a cease and desist order. MSPB also denied this request on the grounds that, since the misconduct occurred nearly 15 years earlier and there was no evidence that it continued today, such postings would serve no purpose.
Hubbard, never one to quit, appealed his case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. On March 3, 2000, the case was finally decided. Hubbard was denied back pay and his request to have EPA admit its wrongdoing was thrown out.
Lesson: Back pay doesn't always come to those who wait.
Michael Hubbard v. Environmental Protection Agency(99-3029), U.S. Court of Appeals for the federal circuit, March 3, 2000.