Case Name: Rosemary O. SLATTERY, Petitioner, v. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Respondent
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 2010-01-06
Citations: 590 F.3d 1345
Docket Number: No. 2009-3095
Parties: Rosemary O. SLATTERY, Petitioner, v. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Respondent.
Judges: Before MICHEL, Chief Judge, NEWMAN and DYK, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 3d Series
Volume: 590
Pages: 1345–1351

Head Matter:
Rosemary O. SLATTERY, Petitioner, v. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Respondent.
No. 2009-3095.
United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit.
Jan. 6, 2010.
Thomas G. Roth, Law Offices of Thomas G. Roth, of West Orange, NJ, argued for petitioner.
Michael N. O’Connell, Trial Attorney, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, of Washington, DC, argued for respondent. With him on the brief were Michael F. Hertz, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Jeanne E. Davidson, Director, and Kirk T. Manhardt, Assistant Director.
Before MICHEL, Chief Judge, NEWMAN and DYK, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge NEWMAN. Dissenting opinion filed by Chief Judge MICHEL.
NEWMAN, Circuit Judge.
Ms. Rosemary 0. Slattery requests review of the decision of the Merit Systems Protection Board ("MSPB" or "Board"), Slattery v. Dep't of Justice, No. AT-0752-01-0756-C-l (M.S.P.B. Aug. 13, 2008) ("Board Op."), in which the Board held that the agency's non-selection of Ms. Slattery for any of the law enforcement positions for which she applied was not a violation of the Negotiated Settlement and Last Chance Agreement ("NSLCA") between Ms. Slattery and the DHS. We affirm the Board's decision.
BACKGROUND
Ms. Slattery was employed by the INS as a supervisory immigration officer, GS-12, when she was arrested and charged with the crime of obtaining money under false pretenses through a scheme in which she purchased expensive items and returned substitute items of a lesser value in order to obtain a refund of the higher price. Ms. Slattery pleaded nolo contendere, paid restitution, and fulfilled the sentence of community service.
The agency first suspended and then removed Ms. Slattery from service. During her appeal of the removal, the parties entered into the NSLCA. Under the NSLCA, the agency agreed to reinstate Ms. Slattery to a non-law enforcement position with back pay and attorney fees, established a three-year probationary period during which she was required to comply with specified "Last Chance Provisions," and barred her from applying for any law enforcement or officer corps position within the agency for one year. The relevant paragraphs of the NSLCA include:
4. It is further agreed that Ms. Slattery will remain in this position with the Agency, and its successor component within the Department of Homeland Security ("DHS"), for a period of not less than one year from the date of this Agreement. During this year, Ms. Slattery is barred from applying for any law enforcement position or officer corps position within the DHS. Nothing in this agreement is intended to prevent Ms. Slattery from applying for another position with an Agency other than DHS.
11. This Settlement Agreement represents the full and complete agreement of, and shall be executed in good faith by, the parties hereto. No other promises shall be binding unless placed in writing and signed by both parties.
23. The duration of the Last Chance Provisions of this Settlement Agreement shall be three (3) years, which begins from the date this Agreement is fully executed. At the expiration of the three years, the Last Chance Provisions of this Agreement shall become null and void, and any reference to the indefinite suspension or removal action shall be removed from Ms. Slattery's Official Personnel File.
The NSLCA was entered into the MSPB record for enforcement purposes. After the one-year bar expired, Ms. Slattery applied for twenty-four positions in the agency in the area of law enforcement. She was not selected for any of them. Ms. Slattery then filed a petition with the MSPB to enforce the NSLCA, arguing that the agency breached the NSLCA by failing to give her applications "good faith" consideration. Ms. Slattery argued that she possessed superior qualifications for at least some of the positions for which she applied, and, therefore, the agency must have held her past criminal conduct against her. The MSPB found that Paragraph ll's requirement for "good faith" does not require that the agency select Ms. Slattery for any law enforcement position. Holding that "nothing in either cited provision, separately or together, requires that the appellant be selected for any position," the Board ruled that the agency did not breach the NSLCA. Board Op. at 3. This appeal followed.
DISCUSSION
The MSPB's decision shall be sustained on appeal unless it is (1) arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law; (2) obtained without procedures required by law, rule or regulation having been followed; or (3) unsupported by substantial evidence. 5 U.S.C. § 7703(c). A settlement agreement is a contract, and is reviewed, like all contracts, to ascertain its meaning including, if required to implement its purposes, determination of contractual intent and mutual understanding. See Conant v. Office of Pets. Mgmt., 255 F.3d 1371, 1376 (Fed.Cir.2001); Greco v. Dep't of the Army, 852 F.2d 558, 560 (Fed. Cir.1988). However, when a contract's words and meaning are unambiguous, its terms are not subject to variation. George Hyman Constr. Co. v. United States, 832 F.2d 574, 579 (Fed.Cir.1987).
I
The agency states that the MSPB lacked jurisdiction over Ms. Slattery's petition for enforcement of the NSLCA because an agency's non-selection decision is not reviewable except in certain situations set by statute and not applicable here. See Edwards v. Dep't of Justice, 87 M.S.P.R. 518, 521 n. 2 (2001) (exceptions to the general rule of non-review are "claims that the agency's decision was made in retaliation for whistleblowing, see 5 U.S.C. § 2302(a)(2)(A)(i); was the product of discrimination based on uniformed service, see 38 U.S.C. § 4311, 4324; or was violative of the candidate's veterans' preference rights, see 5 U.S.C. § 3330a(d)(l)"). Absent a designated exception, non-selection is not appealable to the MSPB. However, the MSPB does have authority to determine whether the agency complied with a settlement agreement. "[W]hen the issue is compliance with a settlement agreement, compliance review is not limited to those aspects of the settlement for which an independent appeal is available." Manley v. Dep't of the Air Force, 91 F.3d 117, 119 (Fed.Cir.1996). Thus, the MSPB had jurisdiction to resolve whether the NSLCA agreement was "executed in good faith" by the agency.
II
Ms. Slattery argues that the NSLCA precludes the agency from considering her past criminal record, in evaluating her applications for law enforcement positions. She states that Paragraph 4 of the NSLCA, which barred her from applying for any law enforcement position or officer corps position for one year, read with Paragraph ll's requirement of good faith, requires the agency to consider her applications, after the expiration of the one year bar, as if the criminal conduct had not occurred. The MSPB held in effect that the NSLCA does not include or imply a requirement that the agency must ignore her history in evaluating her application for a law enforcement or officer corps position.
Ms. Slattery argues that in reviewing her petition for enforcement the Board is required to review the qualifications of the applicants who were actually selected for the positions for which she applied, in order to ascertain whether Ms. Slattery possessed superior qualifications, and, if she did, to rule that her non-selection was a breach of the NSLCA. This argument requires the premise that the agency was not acting in good faith if it took her criminal past into account when evaluating her application for a law enforcement position. The Board held that consideration of her past was not a breach of "good faith." We agree that a contrary mutual understanding cannot be inferred from the NSLCA, which states that "no other promises shall be binding unless placed in writing and signed by both parties." NSLCA ¶ 11.
We conclude that the NSLCA does not require the agency to ignore Ms. Slattery's history, and that "good faith" does not require pretending that this history does not exist. If it had been intended that knowledge of her past conduct could have no role in evaluating her applications for law enforcement positions after one year, the NSLCA reasonably would have included such a critical provision, for a mutual requirement of "good faith" does not require concealing the truth. Since the basis of Ms. Slattery's request for review by the MSPB of the agency's hiring choices was that the agency had not acted in good faith if it had considered Ms. Slattery's past record, there is no ground for MSPB review of the agency's hiring choices. Thus, the MSPB did not err in denying Ms. Slattery's request for discovery and related inquiry as to the agency's selection for the positions for which she had applied.
We affirm the Board's holding that the agency did not breach the NSLCA by not selecting Ms. Slattery for a law enforcement or officer corps position.
AFFIRMED.
. Agency refers to the Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") and a predecessor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Services ("INS").