Opinion ID: 406165
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: MSPB Proceedings

Text: 9 Gipson appealed his removal to the Merit Systems Protection Board. After Gipson's counsel requested several continuances, the MSPB Presiding Official, Elizabeth B. Bogle, refused to postpone the proceedings further and decided Gipson's appeal based on the parties' written submissions. Presiding Official Bogle sustained each of the five charges against Gipson and his resulting removal. Gipson v. Veterans Administration, 1 M.S.P.B. 422 (1979). The MSPB vacated this decision, ruling that good cause existed for rescheduling the hearing and that the case therefore should not have been decided without an evidentiary hearing. Gipson v. Veterans Administration, 1 M.S.P.B. 420 (1980); see 5 U.S.C. § 7701(a) (Supp. IV 1980). 8 10 Subsequently, on June 18 and 19, 1980, Presiding Official Bogle conducted an evidentiary hearing. At the outset of the hearing, the Presiding Official denied Gipson's motion that she recuse herself on grounds of bias. Based upon the parties' written submissions and upon two days of testimony, the Presiding Official again found that the charges against Gipson were supported by a preponderance of the evidence and that his removal was warranted. In addition, the Presiding Official rejected Gipson's claims that his discharge was the result of discrimination or in retaliation for whistle-blowing. Gipson v. Veterans Administration, Docket No. DC075209249 (M.S.P.B. Sept. 10, 1980); A.R. 235-39. The MSPB reviewed the Presiding Official's decision and affirmed on all grounds. Gipson v. Veterans Administration, Docket No. DC075209249 (M.S.P.B. July 17, 1981); A.R. 259-64. 11 Gipson has here petitioned for review of the MSPB Opinion and Order. This court has jurisdiction over this appeal pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 7703 (Supp. IV 1980).II. ANALYSIS 12 The standards for judicial review of MSPB decisions are familiar ones. Under the Civil Service Reform Act, we are required to review the record and hold unlawful and set aside any agency action, findings, or conclusions found to be-(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) (Supp. IV 1980). 13 Gipson raises four distinct challenges to the MSPB decision. He argues that the bias of the Presiding Official denied him a fair hearing, that the MSPB decision sustaining the charges against him was not supported by substantial evidence, that the penalty of removal was clearly excessive, and that the actions of officials at the Veterans Administration were the product of improper motives. As indicated below, none of these challenges is supported by the record in this case. A. Bias of the Presiding Official 14 The petitioner renews before this court his argument that Presiding Official Bogle was biased and that he was therefore deprived of his right to a fair hearing. The MSPB did not err in rejecting this argument. First, the contention that Presiding Official Bogle should have been disqualified from conducting the evidentiary hearing and deciding Gipson's appeal because the MSPB had vacated her previous ruling against Gipson is plainly without basis. Agency officials are not disqualified from conducting a second proceeding involving a party merely because they have ruled against that party previously. NLRB v. Donnelly Garment Co., 330 U.S. 219, 236-37, 67 S.Ct. 756, 765, 91 L.Ed. 854 (1947). 15 Second, petitioner's contention that the Presiding Official was somehow biased in her conduct of the hearing is wholly unsupported. Our review of the hearing transcript reveals that Presiding Official Bogle showed remarkable restraint in the face of rude and arrogant behavior by petitioner's counsel, Mr. Alexander. The record is replete with insolent outbursts, contemptuous remarks and hubristic responses addressed to both witnesses and the Presiding Official by attorney Alexander. This conduct of counsel far exceeded the bounds of legitimate advocacy and was generally well short of the decorum expected of a member of the bar. In this context, counsel's claim of bias on behalf of Gipson is patently specious. B. The Charges Against Gipson
16 Although petitioner frames his attack on the MSPB decision sustaining the charges against him as a challenge to the substantiality of the evidence, he nevertheless concedes the essential facts of the first and fourth charges. He admits that he gave keys to RMS to Lorenzo Leak, Joseph Lloyd and Clyde Burnett so that they might use the RMS swimming pool after hours. Petitioner claims, however, that he had been delegated carte blanche authority to issue keys to RMS and that no hospital regulations prohibited him from doing so. In support of the former claim, Gipson cites a May 20, 1976 memorandum written by Dr. Kamenetz, the Chief of RMS. The memorandum states: The responsibility for controlling keys and the authority to originate all key requests is hereby delegated to B.R. Gipson, Administrative Assistant, RMS. A.R. 12. 17 The MSPB correctly rejected these arguments. The MSPB could properly interpret the May 20, 1976 memorandum as giving Gipson less than unbridled discretion over the issuance of keys to RMS. Notably, the memorandum explicitly granted Gipson the responsibility for controlling keys as well as the authority to issue them. In addition, the record contains substantial evidence of security problems in and around RMS and indicates that RMS was re-keyed several times during Gipson's tenure at the hospital because persons outside RMS had obtained keys to the Service. A.R. 13; Tr. II 33. In these circumstances, it was plainly not irrational for the MSPB to conclude, as the Veterans Administration had charged, that Gipson's issuance of keys to persons outside the Service for their unsupervised, personal use of the RMS pool was an imprudent exercise of Gipson's responsibility and discretion. Gipson could therefore be subject to discipline, even though his actions may have violated no specific hospital regulation.
18 Gipson also concedes the essential facts of the second and third charges. He admits that he gave permission to Leak and Lloyd to use the RMS swimming pool for therapeutic purposes, that Leak and Lloyd had not been referred to RMS by a physician, and that their use of the pool was not supervised by a therapist. Gipson gave the employees permission to use the swimming pool even though he was aware that one physician on the hospital staff had refused to approve their use of the pool. Tr. II 73 (testimony of Gipson). In addition, Gipson gave these employees permission to use the pool only a few months after he had been directed by the Office of the Chief of Staff to cease any therapeutic duties, for which he was unlicensed. Tr. II 78 (testimony of Gipson). In defense of his actions, Gipson argued before the MSPB that no hospital regulations prohibited the therapeutic use of the pool by Lloyd and Leak, that he was motivated by humanitarian purposes, and that other employees made use of the pool for recreational purposes. 19 Based on the record before it, the MSPB correctly rejected Gipson's arguments and sustained the charges of the Veterans Administration. First, while there was no specific hospital regulation concerning use of the RMS pool for therapeutic purposes, it is clear that hospital regulations did require a physician's referral for therapy in the RMS in general. A.R. 132. Furthermore, other hospital rules required that the consultation sheets, by which referrals to RMS were made, could be signed only by physicians. A.R. 116, 138. Second, humanitarian motives provided no excuse for permitting unsupervised therapy without a physician's approval. Finally, the MSPB could properly reject the occasional, unapproved recreational use of the pool as a viable justification for Gipson's actions. 9
20 The facts are somewhat less clear with regard to the fifth charge against petitioner. Gipson testified that he took consultation sheets for Leak and Lloyd to Nurse Durham in December 1978 and that Nurse Durham signed Dr. Kenmore's name to the forms. Because Leak and Lloyd would be using the RMS pool after hours, Gipson testified that he saw no reason to route the forms through the normal RMS office procedures. These original consultation sheets for Leak and Lloyd allegedly were subsequently lost in Gipson's office. According to Gipson, after he was confronted, on January 31, 1979, by Dr. Kamenetz and Assistant Director Corsaro about Leak's and Lloyd's use of the pool, he took new, backdated consultation sheets to Nurse Durham. He allegedly explained to her that the forms were backdated, and she signed Dr. Kenmore's name to them. Gipson then presented these replacement forms as proof of a physician's approval for Leak's and Lloyd's use of the RMS pool. Tr. II 28-30, 70-74. 21 In contrast, Assistant Medical Center Director Corsaro testified that, on the morning of January 31, 1979, Gipson claimed to have a physician's approval for Lloyd's and Leak's use of the RMS pool. After Gipson produced the consultation sheets later in the day, Corsaro interviewed Nurse Durham, who admitted signing the forms that day. The dates on both forms, however, were from December 1978. Tr. I 227-30. In addition, Corsaro's unverified notes of his interview with Nurse Durham indicate that the nurse did not realize that the consultation sheets were backdated, and she claimed she probably would not have signed the two consult sheets had she realized that they were backdated. A.R. 43. 22 These versions of the events conflict in two significant respects. First, Gipson testified that he had obtained consultation sheets for Lloyd and Leak in December and that the forms signed by Nurse Durham on January 31 were only replacements for the misplaced originals. Corsaro's testimony and notes make no mention of original consultation sheets or of Nurse Durham signing them in December. Second, Gipson testified that he informed Nurse Durham that the consultation sheets he presented to her in January were backdated. Corsaro's notes of his interview with Nurse Durham indicate that she denied knowledge of the dates on the forms. 23 This court, were it required to do so, would face substantial difficulties in attempting to resolve these disparate stories. Much of Corsaro's hearsay testimony is in direct conflict with Gipson's sworn testimony. While admissible in the administrative proceeding, Johnson v. United States, 628 F.2d 187, 190 (D.C.Cir. 1980), this hearsay might not constitute substantial evidence to overcome the sworn testimony of a claimant, McKee v. United States, 500 F.2d 525, 528 (Ct.Cl.1974). 10 Additionally, the Presiding Official made no specific credibility findings regarding this testimony that would allow either the MSPB or this court to resolve the differences in the stories. We need not pause long over these problems, however, because the charge of falsifying medical records was properly sustained on the basis of Gipson's own version of the relevant events. 11 24 Under Gipson's version of the events, he asserted to Dr. Kamenetz and Assistant Director Corsaro that he had a physician's approval for the therapeutic use of the RMS pool by employees Leak and Lloyd. 12 When he was unable to locate these forms, he produced new, backdated consultation sheets, had Nurse Durham sign Dr. Kenmore's name to them, and then presented them as the original consultation sheets. He did not explain to his superiors that these were replacements or that Nurse Durham had signed them. In fact, it appears from the record before us that Gipson never claimed to have had original consultation sheets for Lloyd and Leak until he testified to that effect in June 1980. 25 The MSPB could properly find that the backdating of replacement medical records and the attempt to pass off these replacements as original documents constituted falsification of medical records. Cf. 18 U.S.C. §§ 2071(b), 2073 (1976) (employee falsification of government records). The consultation sheets that Gipson produced were knowingly false, with respect to both the date and the physician's signature, and Gipson used them in a willful attempt to deceive Dr. Kamenetz and Assistant Director Corsaro in order to protect himself. This demonstrated a disturbing lack of concern for medical records and a surprising lack of candor from a high-level hospital administrator.