Quinn v. Brown, 76-1932

• Decision Date: 26 September 1977
• Docket Number: No. 76-1932,76-1932
• Citation: 561 F.2d 795
• Parties: Daniel C. QUINN, AR, United States Navy, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Harold A. BROWN et al., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 795

561 F.2d 795

Daniel C. QUINN, AR, United States Navy, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Harold A. BROWN et al., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 76-1932.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Sept. 26, 1977.

Mark H. Gallant, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, D.C., James L. Browning Jr., U.S. Atty., San Francisco, Cal., argued for defendant-appellant.

Melvin K. Dayley, Oakland, Cal., argued for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Before BROWNING, TUTTLE, ^* and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.

J. BLAINE ANDERSON, Circuit Judge:

Quinn brought this action against the Navy in the district court, alleging a breach of his enlistment contract. Quinn sought a writ of habeas corpus ordering his discharge, a declaratory judgment that his enlistment contract was null and void, injunctive relief, mandamus, and money damages. Following a hearing, the district court granted Quinn's motion for summary judgment by order dated January 12, 1976, and on January 21, 1976, the court issued a writ of habeas corpus ordering the Navy to release Quinn from its service. The government timely appealed and jurisdiction vested in this court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253.

FACTS

Quinn first visited his local Navy Recruitment Office in San Mateo, California, during his senior year in high school. He returned several months after graduation and took a battery of pre-enlistment examinations. According to his affidavit filed below, Quinn was primarily interested in receiving training as a machinist mate, but failed to qualify for that program on the basis of his examination scores. Quinn was informed that the only Navy "A" school training program he was eligible for was as a foreign language translator, but that such "A" school training could not be coupled with a duty location guarantee. He was also told that he was eligible for on-the-job training in the Navy "Airman" program, which could be coupled with a guaranteed geographical duty assignment for the first two years of his tour.

According to his affidavit, Quinn did not find the Airman program particularly desirable from the standpoint of providing civilian job skills, since it had only two weeks of schooling and its on-the-job training did not teach specialized skills. However, he did like its geographically-guaranteed duty assignment. Quinn's affidavit also stated that the Navy recruiter told him that:

"if my initial assignment was not according to that guarantee, I would automatically have the right to an honorable discharge. I believed that the automatic right to a discharge was part of the written enlistment contract that was prepared for me to sign by the recruiter. . . . At the time I signed my contract, I believed that I had an automatic right to an honorable discharge if my guarantees were not met, and I would not have signed the contract if I had not believed that I had such a right."

On March 17, 1975, Quinn enlisted in the Navy for a period of four years by signing the enlistment contract. In addition to his enlistment contract, Quinn signed a duty agreement which guaranteed him enrollment in Airman apprenticeship and an initial duty assignment on the West Coast. Quinn specifically elected a West Coast duty port in Hawaii, understood by all parties to be a part of the "West Coast." He stated by affidavit that he would not have signed the enlistment contract had there been no West Coast assignment guarantee.

The following day, March 18, 1975, Quinn entered boot camp in San Diego, California. About three weeks later he approached his Classification Officer to ask if he could change his guaranteed port assignment from Hawaii to Alameda, California, the port closest to his home, because he was "extremely homesick at that time." According to his affidavit, Quinn was informed that if he dropped his Hawaii guarantee, he could not be assured at that point of receiving a specific assignment to Alameda, but that since he could maintain his West Coast guarantee, he might receive an assignment to Alameda. On April 8, 1975, Quinn and the Navy entered into a waiver agreement whereby the Hawaii assignment was waived. ¹

On May 29, 1975, two days prior to the completion of his basic training, Quinn received transfer orders directing him to report to the Naval Air Station in Lemoore, California, for temporary training, and then to depart on July 29, 1975, for an ultimate duty station in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. According to his second affidavit, upon receiving this notification, Quinn asked his company commander whether he could refuse the orders to Okinawa, and was told that he could not. During his training at Lemoore, Quinn approached a Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) Legal Officer to ask whether the Okinawa assignment violated the West Coast guarantee of his enlistment contract. Quinn was taken to a Petty Officer, who told him that Okinawa was a "West Coast" assignment; the JAG Officer then informed Quinn that his enlistment contract had not been breached.

On July 29th, but prior to departure time, Quinn contacted his congressman to see if the congressman could determine whether his enlistment contract had been breached by the Okinawa assignment. A few hours before Quinn's scheduled departure time, he was notified that his assignment had been delayed and that he was now to report for temporary duty at Treasure Island, California. ²

On August 4, 1975, after reporting to Treasure Island, Quinn went to discuss his duty assignment with a Navy JAG officer. In addition to asserting that the Navy had breached the contract, Quinn now, apparently for the first time, sought assistance in obtaining a discharge. According to Quinn's affidavit, the JAG officer told him that it was his opinion that Okinawa was not a West Coast assignment, "but that there was little he could do and that a civilian lawyer could help more than a military lawyer." He recommended that Quinn file a "request chit" and go through the chain of command requesting a discharge. Quinn immediately filed a request chit asking for a discharge, and, in his words, "hand-carried the chit up the chain of command, explaining the facts of my guarantee and the orders to Okinawa to each person. Each recommended disapproval."

According to the affidavit of Assistant Military Personnel Officer Robert Herbert, shortly after Quinn's interview with him, Herbert received a telephone call from Personnelman Foozer informing him that the Navy's Congressional Liaison Office in Washington, D. C., had announced that Quinn's orders to Okinawa were being modified to an assignment aboard the carrier Okinawa, homeported in San Diego. Herbert then instructed Foozer to get in touch with Quinn immediately and inform Quinn that his orders were being changed. The next day, August 5, 1975, Foozer reported back to Herbert, informing him that Foozer had told Quinn of the forthcoming change in his orders and also reported to Herbert that Quinn had, the day previous, filed a...