Opinion ID: 2086786
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The FBPA and Interest on Back Pay Awards Prior to 1980

Text: Mr. Brown cites no authority supporting an award of interest on back pay under the FBPA prior to 1980. We have found at least two cases in which such interest was not awarded. In Fitzgerald v. Staats, 188 U.S.App. D.C. 193, 578 F.2d 435 (1978), the court concluded that an improperly dismissed employee of the Air Force was not entitled to interest on a back pay award. In reaching its conclusion that interest could not be given under the FBPA (before the 1987 amendment), the court stated: Specifically in the context of interest, the [Supreme] Court has ruled that `the intention of Congress to permit the recovery of interest must be expressly and specifically set forth in the statute.. . .' Id., 188 U.S.App. D.C. at 196, 578 F.2d at 438 (quoting United States v. Thayer-West Point Hotel Co., 329 U.S. 585, 590, 107 Ct.Cl. 714, 67 S.Ct. 398, 91 L.Ed. 521 (1947)). Because the FBPA contained no interest provision at the time the case was decided, interest was not awarded to the Air Force employee. The Sixth Circuit reached the same conclusion in Van Winkle v. McLucas, 537 F.2d 246, 248 (6th Cir.1976) (per curiam), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1093, 97 S.Ct. 1105, 51 L.Ed.2d 539 (1977). The court there declared: We believe that the award of interest must be reversed. The Back Pay Act is quite detailed in the relief it affords. Obviously, Congress could have added the award of interest to the remedies which it did provide. Since the Back Pay Act creates a cause of action against the sovereign which did not previously exist, a strict construction of the statutory remedy is generally held to be required. Id. at 248 (citing Thayer-West Point Hotel Co., supra ). See also Library of Congress v. Shaw, 478 U.S. 310, 318, 106 S.Ct. 2957, 92 L.Ed.2d 250 (1986) (When Congress has intended to waive the United States' immunity with respect to interest, it has done so expressly.). [11] Based on these cases, we conclude that, generally, employees were not entitled to interest on back pay awards under the FBPA before 1980.