Opinion ID: 200109
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Plain Language of the VRRA

Text: 18 We begin with the language of the statutory provision granting reemployment rights to reservists who, like Lapine, initiated reemployment prior to December 13, 1994. 4 See Brady v. Credit Recovery Inc., 160 F.3d 64, 66 (1st Cir.1998) (noting statutory language is the starting point for every case involving statutory construction). If statutory language is plain, permitting only one construction, there is no occasion to seek out congressional intent by reference to legislative history or other extrinsic aids. United States v. Meade, 175 F.3d 215, 218 (1st Cir.1999). The applicable, relevant provision here is section 4304(b)(1) of the VRRA, 5 providing as follows: 19 Any person who, after entering the employment on the basis of which such person claims restoration or reemployment, enters upon active duty (other than for the purpose of determining physical fitness and other than for training), whether or not voluntarily, in the Armed Forces of the United States ... in response to an order or call to active duty shall, upon such person's relief from active duty under honorable conditions, be entitled to all of the reemployment rights and benefits provided for by this chapter.... 20 The Town argues that the foregoing language allows reemployment rights only to those reservists who left their civilian employment in response to an order or call to duty received while their civilian employment was still in progress. Any such express restriction would have to be derived, if at all, from the statute's reference to any person who ... enters upon active duty ... in response to an order or call after entering the employment on the basis of which such person claims restoration or reemployment. But while the statute speaks of the order or call as occurring after entering the relevant civilian employment, it does not specify that the order or call must necessarily be timed so as to arrive while the civilian employment is still ongoing. It would not be inconsistent with the statutory language if the order or call were to occur after as well as before resignation. The express language of the statute nowhere specifically links an individual's entry upon active duty (in response to an order or call) to his exit from civilian employment. The phrase enters upon active duty — not some phrase such as leaves his employment — modifies the phrase in response to an order or call to active duty. 21 It is true the statute was aimed at reservists who leave their civilian jobs in order to enter upon active duty, suggesting the need for a meaningful connection between the resignation and the entry upon active duty. But the statutory language does not spell out the timing and mechanics of the connection. In the following section of this opinion, we conclude that the legislative history, the wording of a companion provision of the statute, and the interpretative case law, provide guidance about the nature of the required nexus. But the plain language of section 4304(b)(1) of the VRRA does not mandate that Lapine's entry upon active duty had to occur only while he was still in the actual employ of the Wellesley Police Department. At the very least, section 4304(b)(1) is open to two interpretations: that the call or order to active duty will issue during the employment; or, alternatively, that it may issue after termination of the employment with appropriate linkage between leaving and entry upon active duty. 6 22 We conclude that the plain language of the applicable statute did not render Lapine's resignation premature as a matter of law so as to prevent him from making a valid claim to reemployment.