Staats v. U.S. Postal Service, 96-3148

• Decision Date: 06 November 1996
• Docket Number: No. 96-3148,96-3148
• Citation: 99 F.3d 1120
• Parties: Chester I. STAATS, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

Page 1120

99 F.3d 1120

Chester I. STAATS, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, Respondent.

No. 96-3148.

United States Court of Appeals Federal Circuit.

Nov. 6, 1996.

Seth C. Berenzweig, Ritzert & Leyton, P.C., Fairfax, VA, argued, for petitioner. With him on the brief, was Peter S. Leyton.

Brian M. Reimer, Attorney, Legal Policy, U.S. Postal Service, Washington, DC, argued, for respondent. With him on the brief, were Frank W. Hunger, Assistant Attorney General, David M. Cohen, Director, and Donald E. Kinner, Attorney, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, Department of Justice, Washington, DC, and R. Andrew German, Managing Counsel, for Legal Policy, U.S. Postal Service.

Before LOURIE, CLEVENGER, and BRYSON, Circuit Judges.

BRYSON, Circuit Judge.

This case presents us once again with a claim arising from the 1992 Postal Service reorganization and the early retirements that many Postal Service employees took in connection with that reorganization. Petitioner Charles I. Staats was one of those who elected the early retirement option offered to him by the agency. He did so, he argues, because he regarded the alternative--the prospect of assignment to a "transition center," with an uncertain future to follow--to be unacceptable. Contending that his retirement was involuntary, Staats subsequently filed an appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board seeking reinstatement. The Board denied relief, and Staats took this appeal, in which he contends that the Board should have granted him a hearing on his claim that he was coerced into retiring. We hold that the Board did not err in denying Staats a hearing on the issue of coercion, and we therefore affirm.

I

In July 1992, the Postal Service announced plans to undertake a major reorganization. As part of the reorganization, the Postal Service offered many employees the option of early retirement with a lump-sum salary bonus. The deadline for accepting the early retirement option was initially October 2, 1992, but was later extended to November 20, 1992.

On November 2, 1992, prior to the extended deadline for electing the early retirement option, the Postal Service announced that employees who elected to remain with the agency would not be laid off and would enjoy indefinite "saved grade and frozen pay," i.e., even if they were assigned to lower graded jobs, they would retain their former grade and pay status.

Petitioner Staats accepted the early retirement option. He retired on November 20, 1992, with an annuity and a lump-sum bonus equal to six months' salary. Two years later, Staats sought reinstatement to the Postal Service by filing an appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board. In his appeal, he contended that the Board had jurisdiction over his claim because his retirement was involuntary and thus was legally equivalent to a removal action. Because he was a "preference-eligible" employee and thus enjoyed a statutory right to appeal from an adverse action such as removal, see 39 U.S.C. § 1005(a)(4)(A), Staats argued that his involuntary retirement was both appealable to the Board and unlawful on the merits.

An administrative judge initially dismissed Staats' appeal on the ground that it was untimely and that Staats had failed to demonstrate good cause to excuse his untimeliness. The full Board reversed that ruling, holding that Staats had demonstrated good cause for the belated filing of his appeal. In particular, the Board concluded that Staats had shown that he put the Postal Service on notice that he considered his retirement involuntary and thus triggered the Service's duty to notify Staats of his right to appeal to the Board. The Service's failure to provide him notice of that right, the Board held, constituted good cause for the late filing of his appeal.

The Board further noted that Staats' allegations "concerning his statements to his superiors, together with his allegations that individuals at the agency specifically misinformed him that the reorganization was not a [reduction in force] constitute a prima facie showing that his retirement was involuntary." For that reason, the Board concluded that Staats was entitled to a hearing on the question of voluntariness, which in turn would control the issue of the Board's jurisdiction. The Board accordingly directed the administrative judge to address Staats' claim that his retirement was involuntary.

On remand, the administrative judge first defined the scope of the hearing that she intended to conduct. Based on her reading of the Board's remand order, the administrative judge restricted the hearing to Staats' claim of involuntariness resulting from misinformation; she ruled that Staats' separate claim of involuntariness resulting from coercion was outside the scope of the hearing that the Board had directed her to conduct. In the alternative, the administrative judge ruled that Staats had failed to make a non-frivolous showing of involuntariness based on coercion. For that reason as well she concluded that he was not entitled to a hearing on his coercion claim.

The administrative judge then held an evidentiary hearing on the misinformation claim at which Staats and an agency official testified. Following the hearing, the administrative judge issued an opinion in which she rejected Staats' claim that the agency had given him misinformation that vitiated the voluntariness of his decision to retire. The administrative judge noted that Staats had admitted at the hearing that at the time he retired no action had been taken to demote him, and that he was aware of the agency's announced "no lay-offs" and "saved grade and frozen salary" policies. She added that Staats had testified that the reason he retired was "that his wife's health would have made it difficult for him to relocate and he did not have confidence in the job placement service provided at the agency's transition centers." Finally, she noted that the fact that Staats "perceived his situation to be an unpleasant one because he did not wish to relocate or be sent to a transition center, does not make his decision to retire rather than wait for agency action involuntary." Finding that Staats had failed to establish that his retirement was involuntary, the administrative judge dismissed his appeal for lack of jurisdiction. The full Board denied Staats' petition to review the administrative judge's decision.

II

A

In this court, Staats has not taken issue with the aspect of the Board's decision rejecting his claim that his retirement was the product of misinformation. Instead, he has confined his argument to the assertion that he was improperly denied a hearing on his claim of coercion. We reject that argument on the ground that Staats failed to make a non-frivolous showing that his retirement was the product of coercion, as that term is employed in this legal context, and that he was therefore not entitled to a hearing on that issue.

The governing background principles are these: A decision to resign or retire is presumed to be voluntary, and an employee who voluntarily retires has no right to appeal to the Board; the Board assumes jurisdiction over an appeal by an employee who has resigned or retired only if the employee shows that his resignation or retirement was involuntary and thus tantamount to forced removal. See Mueller v. United States Postal Serv., 76 F.3d 1198, 1201 (Fed.Cir.1996); Braun v. Department of Veterans Affairs, 50 F.3d 1005, 1007 (Fed.Cir.1995). In order to overcome the presumption of voluntariness and demonstrate that a resignation or retirement was involuntary, the employee must satisfy a demanding legal standard. The two principal grounds on which employees have sought to show that their resignations or retirements were involuntary are: (1) that the resignation or retirement was the product of misinformation or deception by the agency, see Covington v. Department of Health & Human Servs., 750 F.2d 937, 942 (Fed.Cir.1984); and (2) that the resignation or retirement was the product of coercion by the agency, see Dumas v. Merit Sys. Protection Bd., 789 F.2d 892, 894 (Fed.Cir.1986).

In order to establish involuntariness on the basis of coercion, an employee must show that the agency effectively imposed the terms of the employee's resignation or retirement, that the employee had no realistic alternative but to resign or retire, and that the employee's resignation or retirement was the result of improper acts by the agency. Schultz v. United States Navy, 810 F.2d 1133, 1136 (Fed.Cir.1987); Roskos v. United States, 213 Ct.Cl. 34, 549 F.2d 1386, 1389-90 (1977). An example of an involuntary resignation based on coercion is a resignation that is induced by a threat to take disciplinary action that the agency knows could not be substantiated. See, e.g., Schultz v. United States Navy, 810 F.2d at 1136; Cosby v. United States, 189 Ct.Cl. 528, 417 F.2d 1345, 1355 (1969); Autera v. United States, 182 Ct.Cl. 495, 389 F.2d 815, 817 (1968). The Board has also found retirements or resignations to be involuntary based on coercion when the agency has taken steps against an employee, not for any legitimate agency purpose but simply to force the employee to quit. See, e.g., Caveney v. Office of Admin., 57 M.S.P.R. 667, 670 (1993); Rayfield v. Department of Agric., 26 M.S.P.R. 244, 246 (1985). See generally Roskos v. United States, 549 F.2d at 1389-90.

As these examples make clear, the doctrine of coercive involuntariness is a narrow one. It does not apply to a case in which an employee decides to resign or retire because he does not want to accept a new assignment, a transfer, or other measures that the agency is...