UNITED STATES OF AME RICA MERIT SYSTEMS PROTEC TION BOARD

MARTHA J. HARVIN, Appellant,

v.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICU LTURE, Agency. DOCKET NUMBER DC

- 0432

- 14

- 0154

- B

- 1

DATE: March 9, 2016



### THIS FINAL ORDER IS NONPRECEDENTIAL 1

Martha J. Harvin , Mount Rainier, Maryland, pro se.
Cliff Lockett , Washington, D.C., for the agency.

BEFORE Susan Tsui Grundmann, Chairman Mark A. Robbins, Member

FINAL ORDER ¶1 The appellant has filed a petition for review of the initial decision, which dismissed her alleged involuntary resignation appeal for lack of jurisdiction. Generally, we grant petitions such as this one only when: the initial decision contains erroneous findings of material fact; the initial decision is based on an erroneous interpretation of statute or regulatio n or the erroneous application of

1 A nonprecedential order is one that the Board has determined does not add significantly to the body of MSPB case law. Parties may cite nonprecedential orders, but such orders have no precedential value; the Board and administrative judges are not required t o follow or distinguish them in any future decisions. In contrast, a precedential decision issued as an Opinion and Order has been identified by the Board as significantly contributing to the Board’s case law. See 5 C.F.R. § 1201.117 (c).2

the law to the facts of the case; the administrative judge’s rulings during either the course of the appeal or the initial decision were not consistent with required procedures or involved an abuse of discretion, and the r esulting error affected the outcome of the case; or new and material evidence or legal argument is available that, despite the petitioner’s due diligence, was not ava ilable when the record closed. Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 1201.1 15 ( 5 C.F.R. § 1201.115 ). After fully considering the filings in this appeal, we conclude that the petitioner has not established any b asis under section 1201.115 for granting the petition for review. Therefore, we DENY the petition for review and AFFIRM the initial decision, which is now the Board’s final decision. 5 C.F.R. § 1201.113 (b).

BACKGROUND ¶2 The appellant was employed as an Issues Analyst with the agency’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, Office of Public Affairs and Consumer Education (OPACE). Init ial Appeal File (IAF), Tab 10, S ubtab 4b. On September 12, 2013, the agency proposed her removal for failure to successfully complete a performance improvement plan. Id. , S ubtab 4e. On October 24, 2013, after considering the appellant’s written response to the proposal, the agency sustained her removal. Id. , S ubtab 4d. In lieu of being removed, the appellant resign ed , effective October 24, 2013, via an email to her second

- level supervisor, the Deputy Assistant Administrator, OPACE. Id. , S ubtab 4c. The ag ency accepted and processed the appellant’s resignation. Id. , S ubtabs 4a

- 4b. ¶3 After resigning , the appellant filed a Board appeal asserting that her resignation was involuntary because she resigned under duress, coercion, and

m isrepresentation by the agenc y , she only was given until the close of busin ess to decide whether to resign in lieu of being removed , and the agency did not allow her to withdraw her resignation on October 24, 2013, without a valid reason. IAF, Tab 13 at 2 , 5.3

¶4 Without holding the appe llant’s requested hearing, the administrative judge dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction on the ground that the appellant failed to nonfrivolously allege that her resignation was involuntary. IAF, Tab 15, Initial Decision (ID) at 5

- 8. The admini strative judge found that the agency’s denial of the appellant’s request for additional time to decide whether to resign in lieu of being removed was not coercive and did not render the appellant’s resignation involuntary. ID at 6

- 7. The administrative judge also found t hat the appellant did not contend that she attempted to rescind her resignation prior to or on October 24, 2013 , the effective date of her resignation. ID at 7. ¶5 On review, the Board found that the appellant had nonfrivolously alleged

t hat her resignation was involuntary and remanded the case for further adjudication. Harvin v. Department of Agriculture , MSPB Docket No. DC

- 0432

- 14

- 0154

- I

- 1, Remand Order at 5

- 6 (Feb. 5, 2015). Specifically, the Board found that the appellant had submitt ed an affidavit below alleging that she sought to withdraw her resignation before the close of business on October 24, 2013 , and that the agency did not allow her to withdraw it. Id. at 5. The Board also considered the appellant’s further explanation on review that , on the afternoon of October 24, 2013, she telephoned and informed an equal employment o pportunity (EEO) specialist that she wanted to rescind her resignation, the EEO specialist informed the appellant that she need ed to check with her supervisor, but failed to

return the appellant ’s call before the end of the day

. Id. ¶6 On remand, after holding a hearing, the administrative judge issued an initial decision dismissing the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. Remand Fil e (R F), Tab 23, Remand Initial Decision (RID). The adminis trative judge found that there was no evidence to support the appellant’s claim that she attempted to rescind her resignation by contacting the EEO specialist or any other agency official and credi ted the EEO specialist’s testimony that the appellant never told her that she wanted to rescind her resignation over the appellant’s testimony to the contrary

. R ID at 9

- 11.4

¶7 The appellant has filed a petition for review in which she disputes the administra tive judge’s findings and credibility determinations regarding whether she communicated to the agency her desire to withdraw her resignation

. Remand Peti tion for Review (RPFR) File, Tab 1 at 9

- 21

. She also reasserts her arguments that her resignation was involuntary because she resigned under duress, coercion, and misrepresentation by agency officials and only was given until the close of business to decide whether to resign in lieu of being removed. RPFR File, Tab 1
at 3

- 9

. The agency has opposed the appellant’s petition. RPFR File, Tab 3.

DISCUSSION OF ARGUME NTS ON REVIEW ¶8 As a pre liminary matter, t he Board previously found i n its decision on the appellant’ s first petition for review that s he failed to nonfrivolously alleg e that she resigned under duress, coercion, or misrepresentation, as a result of misleading statemen ts made by agency officials, because her working conditions were in tolerable due to discrimination, or because the agency denied her request for additional time to decide whether to resign. Remand Order at 4

- 5

. To the extent the appellant seeks reconsideration of these issues on review, RPFR File, Tab 1 at 3

- 9 , w e decline to consider such arguments because they are barred b y the law of the case doctrine, which “limits relitigation of an issue o nce that issue has been decided

. . . in a different stage of the same litigation.” Nease v. Department of the Army , 103 M.S.P.R. 118 , ¶ 10 (2006) ; see Seas v. U.S. Postal
Service , 78 M.S.P.R. 569 , 573 (1998) ( invoking the law o f the case doctrine and declining to reconsider the Board’s prior findings reg arding the merits of the agency’ s charges). The Board will not address evidence or argument submitted by the appellant for the first time on review. ¶9 The appellant argues for the first time on review that the EEO spe cialist omitted crucial information in the IComplaint 2 system regarding their

2 IComplaint is a computer system used to track EEO complaints. R F, Tab 21.5

conversations on O ctober 24, 2013 , during which the appellant asserts she rescinded her resignation . RPFR File, Tab 1 at 13

- 14 , 16

- 17 . As evidence, she attaches documents relat ing to her EEO complaint concerning her removal, which she contends show that she had conversati ons with the EEO specialist on other dates, which similarly are not ref lected in the I Complaint system

. Id. at 23

- 29. The appellant also submits documentation relating to her unemployment benefits and asserts that she applied for unemployment based upon advice from the EEO specialist. Id. at 12, 30. ¶10 The Board generally will not consider evidence or argument for the first time on review absent a showing that it is based on new and material evidence not previously available despite the party’s due diligence. Banks v. Department of the Air Force , 4 M.S.P.R. 268 , 271 (1980) ; Avansino v. U.S. Postal Service , 3 M.S.P.R. 211 , 214 (1980). The documents submitted by the appellant predate the close of the record below , and the appellant has not explain ed why she could not have made these arguments before the administrative judge. RPFR File, Tab 1 at 23

- 30 . Thus, we need not consider them on review. In any event, none of the documents submitted by the appellant on review establish that she rescinded h er resignation. Thus, they would not provide a basis for granting review because they are not of sufficient weight to warrant a different outcome from that of the initial decision. Russo v. Veterans Administration , 3 M.S.P.R. 345 , 349 (1980). The appellant has not establish ed that the administrative judge made erroneous factual findings or credibility determ inations

. ¶11 On review, the appellant disputes the EEO specialist’ s te stimony, argues that she is not credible, and asserts that the administrative judge erred in her credibility determinations . RPFR File, Tab 1 at 9

- 21. To resolve credibility issues, an administrative judge must identify the factual questions in dispute, summarize the evidence on each disputed question, state which version she believes, and explain in detail why she found the chosen version more credible,6

considering factors such as the following : (1) the witness’s opportunity and capacity to observe the event or act in question; (2) the witness’s character; (3) any prior inconsistent statement by the witness; (4) a witness’s bias, or lack of bias; (5) th e contradiction of the witness’s version of events by other evidence or its consistency with other evidence; (6) the inherent improbability of the witness’s version of events; and (7) the witness’s demeanor. Hillen v. Department of the Army , 35 M.S.P.R. 453 , 458 (1987). ¶12 The Board must give deference to an administrative judge’s credibility determinations when they are based, explicitly or implicitly, on the o bservation of

t he demeanor of witnesses testifying at a hearing; the Board may overturn such determinations only when it has “sufficiently sound” reasons for doing so. Haebe v. Department of Justice , 288 F.3d 1288 , 1301 (Fed. Cir. 2002). Where, as here, an administrative judge has heard live testimony, her credibility determinations must be deemed to be at least implicitly based upon the demeanor of the witnes ses. Little v. Department of Transportation , 112 M.S.P.R. 224 , ¶ 4 (2009).
W e find that the appellant’ s assertions on review reflect her mere disagreemen t with the administrative judge’ s reasoned credibility findings , and they do not provide a sufficiently sound reason for overturning those findings. See Diggs v. Department of Housing & Urban Development , 114 M.S.P.R. 464 , ¶ 8 (2010 )

. ¶13 Applying the Hillen factors, the administrative judge found that the appella nt’s testimony , that she told the EEO specialist that she wanted to rescind her resignation , was not credible and was not consis tent with the record evidence

. R ID at 10

- 11 . T he administrative judge noted that in the appellant’s sworn
statement submitted below , she did not claim therein that she had communicated her desire to rescind her resignation to the EEO specialist or any other agency official. RID at 10. The administrative judge also found significant that the appellant did not atte mpt to email or call her second

- level supervisor to rescind her resignation after she emailed him her resignation and instead respond ed to his email confirming her resignation by thanking him. Id

.7

¶14 In contrast, the administrative judge found that the EEO specialist testified in a clear, direct , and straightforward manner . RID at 9. The administrative judge further found that the EEO specialist’s testimony that the appellant never told her that she wanted to rescind her resignation during their discussions on October 24, 2013, was consistent with the record evidence. Id

. The administrative judge noted that the I C omplaint system , which contained not es of the appellant’s October 24 , 2013 conversation with the EEO specialist , made no mention of the appellant requesting to rescind her resignation. Id. She also noted that the appellant’s lengthy email to the EEO specialist the day after her removal failed to mention the appellant’s purpo rted rescission. RID at 9

- 10. ¶15 T he administrative judge found , moreover, that , although the appellant’s son testified in a clear, direct, and straightforward manner, his testimony was of limited probative value because he merely confirmed the appellant’s claim that she had called the EEO specialist, but could not confirm that the appellant had informed the EEO specialist that she wanted to rescind her resignation.
RID at 10. ¶16 On review , the appellant disputes the administrative judge ’s finding that she did not claim in her sworn statement that she attempted to withdraw her resignation with the EEO specialist or any other agency official

. RPFR F ile, Tab 1 at 17. In her sworn statement, the appellant indicated, “I sought to withdraw my proposed offer to resign prior to tight deadline of COB on October 24, 2013, but the agency did not have a valid reason for not allowing its withdrawal.” IA F, Tab 13 at 2. Even if we were to assume that the appellant’s sworn statement implies that she attempted to withdraw her resignation , as she claims, we would conclude that it would not affect the ultimate outcome of the case, given the administrative jud ge’s otherwise proper credibility determinations on the issues before us. ¶17 T he appellant also disputes the administrative judge ’s finding that she did not address her rescission of her resignation in her October 25, 2013 email to the8

EEO specialist on the day after her removal. RPFR File, Tab 1 at 17. However,

w e agree with the administrative judge that this email fails to mention the appellant’s purported rescission and does not reference any of the appellant’s alleged conversation s with the EEO speciali st on October 24, 2013, regarding her attempts to rescind her resignation. 3 R ID at 9

- 10; R F, Tab 4 at 11. ¶18 Finally, the appellant disputes the administrative judge ’s finding that there was no evidence that she left a message for the EEO specialist concerning rescinding her resignation. RPFR File, Tab 1 at 18. She asserts that her son testified that he witnessed her crying and heard her state that she was trying to call the EEO specialist to r escind her resignation, that he dialed the EEO specialis t’s work and cell phone numbers repeatedly for her, and that after receiving the EEO specialist’s voicemail, he handed the phone to her and she left several voicemail messages. Id. The appellant does not , however, c ontend that her son testified that he h eard her leave a voicemail message rescinding her resignation

. Thus, we defer to the administrative judge ’s finding that the appellant’s son’s testimon y was of little probative value and did not detract from the EEO specialist’ s credibility. RID at 10

.

3 The appellant contends for the first time on review that she sought to re scind her resignation via her October 25, 2013 email to the EEO specialist in which she stated, “I hope and pray that I can be Reinstated back at USDA, and continue doing a wonderful job

. ” RPFR File, Tab 1 at 17

. W e will not consider this argument now because t he
a ppellant has not shown that it is based on new and material evidence that was not previously available despite her due diligence. See Banks , 4 M.S.P.R. at 271

. In any event, even if this email could be construed as a request to withdraw her resignation, the appellant was not entitled to rescind her resignation after the October 24, 2013 effective date of her resignation

. See Glenn v. U.S. Soldier’s & Airmen’s Home , 76 M.S.P.R. 572 , 576

- 77 (1997).9

¶19 We have considered the appellant’s remaining arguments on review , but find that such arguments constitute mere disagreement with the administrative judge’s credibility deter minations and factual findings and do not provide a basis for disturbing the init ial decision.

NOTICE TO THE APPELL ANT REGARDING YOUR FURTHER REVIEW RIGHTS You have the right to request review of this final decision by the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. You must submit your request to the court at the following address : United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit 717 Madison Place, N.W.

Washington, DC 20439 The court must receive your request for review no later than 60 calendar days after the date of this order. See 5 U.S.C. § 7703 (b)(1)(A) (as rev. eff. Dec. 27, 2012). If you choose to file, be very careful to file on time. The court has held that normally it does not have the authority to waive this statutory deadline and that filings that do not comply with the deadline must be dismissed. See Pinat v. Office of Personnel Management , 931 F.2d 1544 (Fed. Cir. 1991). If you need f urther information about your right to appeal this decision to court, you should refer to the Federal law that gives you this right. It is found in

t itle 5 of the United States Code, section 7703 ( 5 U.S.C. § 7703 ) (as rev. eff. Dec. 27, 2012). You may read this law as well as other sections of the United States Code, at our website, ht tp://www.mspb.gov/appeals/uscode.htm . Additional information is available at the court’s website, www.cafc.uscourts.gov . Of particular relevance is the court’s “Guide for Pro Se Petitioners and Appellants,” wh ich is contained within the court’s Rules of Practice , and Forms 5, 6, and 11.10

If you are interested in securing pro bono representation for an app eal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, you may visit our website at http://www.mspb.gov/prob ono for information regarding pro bono representation for Merit Systems Protection Board appellants before the Federal Circuit. The Merit Systems Protection Board neither endorses the services provided by any attorney nor warrants that any attorney will a ccept representation in a given case.

FOR THE BOARD:

Washington, D.C. ______________________________ William D. Spencer Clerk of the Board