Chacon v. U.S.

• Decision Date: 31 January 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-5093,94-5093
• Citation: 48 F.3d 508
• Parties: Marvin A. CHACON, Catherine L. Chacon, Johnny O. Contreras, Sally Contreras, Evelyn Bielak, Ronald Springfield and Carol Springfield, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The UNITED STATES, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

Page 508

48 F.3d 508

Marvin A. CHACON, Catherine L. Chacon, Johnny O. Contreras Sally Contreras, Evelyn Bielak, Ronald Springfield and Carol Springfield, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The UNITED STATES, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 94-5093.

United States Court of Appeals Federal Circuit.

Jan. 31, 1995.

William Stephens, Bill Stephens & Associates, P.C., of Phoenix, AZ, submitted for plaintiffs-appellants.

Matthew S. Bode, Atty., Commercial Litigation Branch, Dept. of Justice, of Washington, DC, submitted for defendant-appellee. With him on the brief were Frank W. Hunger, Asst. Atty. Gen., David M. Cohen, Director and James M. Kinsella, Asst. Director. Of counsel was Thomas W. Petersen.

Before NIES, MICHEL and PLAGER, Circuit Judges.

MICHEL, Circuit Judge.

The claims at issue in this case were brought under the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act ("the Act"), 42 U.S.C. Secs. 3796-96c (1988 & Supp. III 1991). The plaintiffs, Marvin A. Chacon et al. (collectively "Chacon"), appeal from the order of the Court of Federal Claims ¹ granting the government's motion for summary judgment on the ground that the decedents in this case were not "public safety officers" as defined by the Act. Because Chacon has failed to show that the decedents were public safety officers, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

This action arises out of the deaths of Joseph L. Chacon, Alex S. Contreras, James Ellis, and Curtis Springfield, all of whom served as members of a firefighting detail composed of inmates from the Arizona State Prison at Perryville, Arizona. Pursuant to an interagency agreement, the Arizona Department of Corrections contracted with the Arizona State Land Department to provide a labor force to the Land Department to support its regular firefighting obligations; the Perryville State Prison firefighting detail was formed in partial satisfaction of this contract. The four men were killed while helping to fight a large fire in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona on June 26, 1990. The governor of Arizona granted each of the decedents a full and unconditional posthumous pardon on November 6, 1990.

Chacon, as next of kin to one of the decedents, filed a claim for $100,000 under the Act with the Public Safety Officers' Benefits program of the Bureau of Justice Assistance ("BJA"), a unit within the Department of Justice. In an initial decision rendered on November 13, 1991, the claim was denied on the ground that the decedent was not a "public safety officer" for purposes of the Act. Chacon administratively appealed the initial decision, and at a hearing held on March 4, 1992, Chacon presented four witnesses and several documents in support of his claim. On June 25, 1992, the hearing officer affirmed the initial decision, denying the claim on the same ground. Chacon next appealed the hearing officer's decision, and on August 25, 1992, the Director of the BJA issued a final decision denying the death benefits claim. The core of the Director's decision was as follows:

We have previously determined that in order to be serving a public agency in an official capacity, one must be an officer, employee, volunteer, or [in a] similar relationship of performing services as a part of a public agency. To have such a relationship with a public agency, an individual must be officially recognized or designated as functionally within or a part of the public agency. ^*

Ariz.Rev.Stat. Sec. 31-254(J) ² defines the status of the decedents under State law.

                They were not employees of the State, nor of its Department of Corrections.  Clearly, the decedents cannot be said to be public safety officers serving a public agency in an official capacity.  By explicitly prohibiting the decedents from qualifying as state employees ... the statute demonstrates conclusively that the State did not intend to recognize the decedents as "functionally within or a part of the public agency."   Based on this statute, they certainly cannot be said to be public safety officers
                

On October 14, 1992, having exhausted his administrative remedies, Chacon filed a claim for $100,000 in the Court of Federal Claims. The trial court, in its decision of January 27, 1994, granted the government's motion for summary judgment and dismissed the complaint. The trial court, like the three previous administrative decision-makers, concluded that the decedents were not public safety officers for purposes of the Act. It is this decision from which Chacon now appeals.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Judicial review of a BJA denial of death benefits under the Act is limited to three inquiries: "(1) whether there has been substantial compliance with statutory [sic] and implementing regulations; (2) whether there has been any arbitrary or capricious action on the part of the Government officials involved; and (3) whether there was substantial evidence supporting the decision." Morrow v. United States, 647 F.2d 1099, 1102, 227 Ct.Cl. 290, cert. denied, 454 U.S. 940, 102 S.Ct. 475, 70 L.Ed.2d 247 (1981).

Because the Court of Federal Claims held Chacon unentitled to benefits under the Act as a matter of statutory interpretation, granting the government's motion for summary judgment, we review its decision de novo. Shelden v. United States, 7 F.3d 1022, 1026 (Fed.Cir.1993).

ANALYSIS

A. Section 3796(a) of the Act provides, in relevant part, that "[i]n any case in which the [BJA] determines ... that a public safety officer has died as the direct and proximate result of personal injury sustained in the line of duty, the [BJA] shall pay a benefit of $100,000 [to the officer's next of kin.]" 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3796(a) (Supp. III 1991). Thus, to recover under the Act, Chacon must show, inter alia, that the decedents were "public safety officers" for purposes of the Act--that is, that they were individuals serving a public agency in an official capacity as public safety officers of some kind. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3796b(7) (Supp. III 1991) (" 'public safety officer' means an individual serving a public agency in an official capacity, with or without compensation, as ... a firefighter"). Specifically, he must show that the decedents were public safety officers serving as "firefighters." See 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3796b(3) (Supp. III 1991) (" 'firefighter' includes an individual serving as an officially recognized or designated member of a legally organized volunteer fire department"). Because we resolve Chacon's claim based on his failure to show that the decedents were public safety officers, we do not reach the question whether decedents were "firefighters" as statutorily defined.

No one disputes that the agencies involved in this case--the Arizona Department of Corrections and Land Department--are public agencies. The case turns, therefore, on whether the decedents were "serving" either of them "in an official capacity." The Act does not, however, define what it means to "serv[e] in an official capacity."

When we consider the merits of a party's challenge to an agency's interpretation of a statute it has been charged with administering, we take our analytic framework from the Supreme Court's decision in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). In Chevron, the Court described the proper approach in such situations:

When a court reviews an agency's construction of the statute which it administers, it is confronted with two questions. First, always, is the question whether Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue. If the intent of Congress is clear, that is the end of the matter; for the court, as well as the agency, must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress. If, however, the court determines Congress has not directly addressed the precise question at issue, the court does not simply impose its own construction of the statute, as would be necessary in the absence of an administrative interpretation. Rather, if the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute.

Id. at 842-43, 104 S.Ct. at 2782 (footnotes omitted). Importantly, "[t]he court need not conclude that the agency construction was the only one it permissibly could have adopted" in order to be required to affirm it. Id. at 843 n. 11, 104 S.Ct. at 2782 n. 11. Where, as here, "the legislative delegation to an agency on a particular question is implicit rather than explicit," we must affirm any "reasonable interpretation made by the administrator of [the] agency." Id. at 844, 104 S.Ct. at 2782 (footnote omitted). Accord Newman v. Teigeler, 898 F.2d 1574, 1576 (Fed.Cir.1990); Beneficial Corp. and Subsidiaries v. United States, 814 F.2d 1570, 1574 (Fed.Cir.1987).

The Director, in his final decision in this case, relied upon the interpretation of the "serving in an official capacity" previously established by the BJA:

In order to be serving a public agency in an official capacity one must be an officer, employee, volunteer, or similar relationship of performing services as a part of a public agency. To have such a relationship with a public agency, an individual must be officially recognized or designated as functionally within or a part of the public agency.

U.S. Dep't of Justice, Legal Interpretations of the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act 9 (1981). Chacon does not argue that this regulatory definition of "serving in an official capacity" is unreasonable, and we see nothing unreasonable in it. Instead, he argues that it has been misapplied in this case.

The Director concluded that, given the express terms by which section 31-254(J) of the Arizona Code precludes a participant in an inmate labor program from being "considered as an employee or to be employed by the state," the decedents' participation in the fire detail could not make them employees of the state, the Department of Corrections, or any agency with which...