Opinion ID: 593405
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Caption Issue

Text: 14 We turn first to the DVA motion to reform the caption, that is, to designate the Department of Veterans Affairs as the proper respondent before this court. The designation of the proper respondent is not simply a question of getting the name of the case right. It determines which agency and whose lawyers--and therefore whose policies and practices--are represented in the appeal. The issue is not a new one under the CSRA, although this case raises it in a new context, that of a claim for relief under the IRA provisions. Because in this context the question is one of first impression, we examine it at some length.
15 Central to the dispute are two different provisions of Title 5, each of which purports to authorize judicial review of MSPB actions. One of these provisions is found in the original CSRA. Section 7703 is entitled Judicial review of decisions of the Merit Systems Protection Board. Subsection 7703(a)(1) states the employee's general right of judicial review: 16 Any employee or applicant for employment adversely affected or aggrieved by a final order or decision of the Merit Systems Protection Board may obtain judicial review of the order or decision. 6 17 The next subsection, 7703(a)(2), then indicates the proper respondent for the appeal pursuant to § 7703(a)(1). Prior to its amendment in 1989, 7703(a)(2) read: 18 The Board shall be named as respondent in any proceeding brought pursuant to this subsection, unless the employee or applicant for employment seeks review of a final order or decision issued by the Board under section 7701. In review of a final order or decision issued under section 7701, the agency responsible for taking the action appealed to the Board shall be the named respondent. 19 (The reference to section 7701 is to the general provision for MSPB review of agency personnel actions.) 20 While seemingly straightforward, the application of this language to particular cases was subject over the years to some dispute. Prior to 1988, § 7703(a)(2) had been understood to mean that the proper respondent in this court ordinarily was not the Board itself, but the agency responsible for taking the action which was the subject of the appeal. Thus, in the usual case this meant that the employing agency was the respondent, since it was the agency's personnel action that triggered the decision on the merits. However, if during the course of the MSPB proceedings the final decision or order turned on the MSPB's procedures or jurisdiction, on an appeal to this court the MSPB was held to be the proper respondent since the relevant agency action was that of the MSPB. See Hopkins v. Merit Systems Protection Bd., 725 F.2d 1368, 1372 (Fed.Cir.1984); Peterson v. Department of Energy, 737 F.2d 1021, 1022 (Fed.Cir.1984), cert. denied 469 U.S. 1189, 105 S.Ct. 960, 83 L.Ed.2d 966 (1985); cf. Tiffany v. Department of Navy, 795 F.2d 67, 69 (Fed.Cir.1986). 21 In 1988 the Federal Circuit, in Hagmeyer v. Department of Treasury, 852 F.2d 531 (Fed.Cir.1988), sitting in banc, overturned the Hopkins line of cases, and ruled that only the employing agency should be the respondent on review of all decisions rendered under § 7701. Id. at 539. This was said to be dictated by the plain meaning and legislative history of the statute. Id. at 539-40. 22 However, the effect of this ruling was promptly overturned by Congress in a 1989 amendment to § 7703(a)(2). Congress amended the subsection to read: 23 The Board shall be named as respondent in any proceeding brought pursuant to this subsection, unless the employee or applicant for employment seeks review of a final order or decision on the merits of the underlying personnel action, or on a request for attorney fees, in which case the agency responsible for taking the personnel action shall be the respondent. 24 (The newly enacted language is emphasized). 25 In Amin v. Merit Systems Protection Bd., 951 F.2d 1247 (Fed.Cir.1991), the court was called upon to apply the amended § 7703(a)(2). Two petitioners (whose cases were consolidated) appealed their individual removals to the MSPB. When the petitions for review were filed in this court, the Clerk named the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Postal Service, the respective employing agencies, as the respondents. By letter to the Clerk, the MSPB requested the cases be recaptioned to designate the MSPB as the respondent in each case, citing § 7703(a)(2). The Clerk did so. The agencies then moved the court to reform the caption to reflect the employing agency as the respondent in each appeal. 26 Judge Cowen, writing for the court, engaged in a thorough and careful analysis of § 7703(a)(2) and its troubled history. The court concluded that there was no question that the 1989 amendment was in response to the Hagmeyer decision, and the court had no difficulty in understanding from the amendment and its legislative history what Congress had in mind. Amin, 951 F.2d at 1251. The result, said the court, was essentially to reinstate, with a minor exception, the pre-Hagmeyer rule of Hopkins. 7 Congress intended that the Board shall be the respondent in all appeals involving its jurisdiction or its rulings on procedural questions, but that in appeals involving underlying personnel actions and attorney fees, the employing agencies should be the respondents. Id. 27 With regard to a case in which the appeal to this court involved both the merits and the validity of MSPB procedures, the Amin court, citing Hopkins, noted that this court has followed the practice of naming the employing agency as the respondent in cases 'involving issues both on the merits of an agency's action and on the MSPB procedures....'  951 F.2d at 1252. See, e.g., Howell v. Merit Systems Protection Bd., 785 F.2d 282, 285 (Fed.Cir.1986). The Amin court concluded, [t]herefore, we hold that in cases where, as in this case, the appeal from the Board's decision presents mixed questions of procedure and the merits of an agency action, the employing agency is the proper respondent. 951 F.2d at 1252. 28 In cases controlled by § 7703(a)(2), then, Amin provides the necessary guidelines for determining who is the proper respondent: if only MSPB procedure or jurisdiction is involved, it is the Board; when the underlying merits are involved, it is the employing agency; when both are involved, it is the employing agency.
29 At the beginning of this discussion we noted that there were two statutory provisions in Title 5 central to this dispute. One is § 7703 and its subsections, which have just been discussed. The other is § 1221(h)(1), added in 1989 as part of the IRA. It is the presence of this second provision that takes this case out of the Amin context, and requires further consideration of the question of determining the proper respondent. Subsection 1221(h), paragraph (1), parrots § 7703(a)(1), the general provision of the CSRA providing for judicial review of MSPB decisions: 30 An employee, former employee, or applicant for employment adversely affected or aggrieved by a final order or decision of the Board under this section may obtain judicial review of the order or decision. 31 Paragraph (2) of subsection (h) states that the review shall be filed with such court and within such time as provided for under section 7703(b); § 7703(b) specifies, with one exception not relevant here, that review is in the Federal Circuit, and sets a 30-day filing date. 32 The DVA argument is premised basically on the proposition that this case comes to us from the MSPB under the special provisions of the IRA, and not under the general review authority of § 7703(a)(1). The DVA argues that, since this case arises under § 1221 with its own independent authority for review in the Federal Circuit provided by § 1221(h), the provisions for designating the proper respondent set out in § 7703(a)(2) are not applicable; they are applicable only to cases appealed under the authority of § 7703(a)(1). Thus, says the DVA, we can decide the correct rule for determining who is the proper respondent free of the strictures of § 7703(a)(2). 33 The MSPB, on the other hand, argues that § 7703(a)(1) is the basis for all appeals of MSPB decisions, and that the duplicative language of § 1221(h) providing for review in the Federal Circuit is mere surplusage--cautionary duplication of the pre-existing review authority of § 7703(a)(1). Since, argues the MSPB, Congress had before it at the same time both the amendment to § 7703(a)(2) which overturned the Hagmeyer rule and the new provisions of the IRA, Congress would have stated in the IRA a different rule for respondents if it intended one.
34 We need not decide which of these theories of appellate review is the correct one, that is whether, for purposes of determining the proper respondent, appeals under the IRA come to this court under authority of § 1221(h)(1) or under authority of § 7703(a)(1). Clearly, if the appeal is authorized under § 7703(a)(1) the rules for determining the proper respondent are governed by § 7703(a)(2), as explicated in Amin. 35 If, on the other hand, the case comes here under the authority of § 1221(h) of the IRA, there is no provision in that section of the statute comparable to § 7703(a)(2). In other words, in absence of Congressional instruction, the DVA is correct that this court is left to determine as a matter of first impression what should be the governing rule for designating the respondent. Given this, says the DVA, the correct rule is to name the employing agency. As a matter of policy, in the DVA's view, the MSPB should be kept in its role of neutral adjudicator and not advocate, whatever the issue is on appeal to this court. 36 We do not agree with the DVA's view of the matter. Even if we were to consider that the appeal came to us under § 1221(h) in isolation from § 7703(a)(1), we have no difficulty in following the lead of the Amin court in applying the principle of Hopkins. Admittedly that rule was announced as an interpretation of § 7703(a)(2), which subsection does address the question of who should be the respondent. The IRA in § 1221 does not expressly address the question at all. However, there are good reasons for applying the Hopkins/ Amin rule nevertheless. 37 The question of what are the controlling criteria for determining the proper party respondent is the same question whether the appeal comes to us under the authority of § 7703 or § 1221. Congress, when faced with the rule of Hagmeyer as the controlling criterion for appeals under the general authority of § 7703(a)(1), promptly reinstated the Hopkins rule. The same arguments in favor of the Hagmeyer rule made here by the DVA were presented at the Congressional hearings on the issue, and were rejected by Congress. 8 By applying the Hopkins rule here as well, we give full credence to the expressed will of Congress and maintain a consistency of approach regardless of the underlying source of appellate jurisdiction. The language of the two acts supports this, since the grant of jurisdiction language in the one is virtually identical with the other. 38 Furthermore, application of the Hopkins rule to IRA appeals produces a functionally sensible process. It gives authority to shape the litigation to the agency most affected by the outcome. In most cases, that will be the employing agency. Identification of the proper respondent will be obvious. 39 It is true that a rigid rule such as that invoked in Hagmeyer might be easier to administer in that it would leave no room for question. But such rigidity may have greater risk of causing problems than the more functional rule of Hopkins. The benefit of having in the system some discretion to ensure that the agency with the primary interest in the particular outcome is represented outweighs the possible costs of occasional dispute resolution when the agencies concerned cannot agree on where that primary interest lies. 40 In short, then, it does not matter under which of these theories of appellate jurisdiction an appeal reaches this court, the result will be the same. If the issue on appeal is solely one of the procedure or jurisdiction of the MSPB, then the proper respondent is the MSPB. If the issue is solely the merits of the underlying agency action, the agency is the proper respondent. If the case raises a mixture of these issues, i.e., if the merits of the agency action are reached by the MSPB, and at the same time a matter of important MSPB procedure or jurisdiction is involved, Amin teaches that the employing agency is the proper respondent. In such a case, the MSPB need not be unrepresented since it may request intervenor status, or as was done in Hagmeyer in absence of a motion to intervene, be given status as amicus curiae. 9
41 Before closing this part of the case, it is important to clarify what is meant by the phrase the procedure or jurisdiction of the MSPB as the governing criteria for designating the proper party respondent. The term procedure is generally well-understood. It is the meaning of the term jurisdiction that may cause misunderstanding. 42 Jurisdiction is a term that is one of the most slippery in the legal lexicon. It takes on different connotations depending upon the context. When we speak here of an issue involving the jurisdiction of the MSPB, we are referring to the power of the MSPB to hear and decide a case--subject matter jurisdiction. See, e.g., Stokes v. Federal Aviation Admin., 761 F.2d 682, 685 (Fed.Cir.1985) (Jurisdiction means the right or power of a tribunal to act.). 43 Sometimes the question of subject matter jurisdiction gets confused with the question of entitlement to relief, that is, whether a cause of action has been stated in the complaint, or later proved. For purposes of this discussion, precision requires that the distinction between these ideas be clearly drawn. In response to plaintiff's complaint, defendant may argue that the plaintiff's chosen forum lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter. (This may be raised, for example, by motion under Fed.R.Civ.Proc. 12(b)(1)). A decision by the forum that the facts as alleged do not fall within its subject matter jurisdiction is properly characterized as a dismissal for want of jurisdiction. 44 Defendant may also argue that the complaint's factual allegations fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and again this may be raised by motion. Fed.R.Civ.Proc. 12(b)(6). Assuming that jurisdiction has not been challenged, or if challenged, jurisdiction has been found to exist on the basis of well-pleaded allegations in the complaint, a decision by the forum that the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted is a decision on the merits of the pleaded cause. By like token, if plaintiff's later proofs fail with regard to an essential factual allegation, a decision against the plaintiff is a decision on the merits. 45 Confusion may arise when the factual allegations that constitute the cause of action include allegations which are necessary to establish jurisdiction. While the practical result of a dismissal for want of jurisdiction may in some cases be the same as a dismissal for failure to state a claim, the legal consequences can be substantially different. 10 46 This important distinction between lack of jurisdictional power and the failure to state or prove a claim for relief has been drawn in a number of cases. In Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. v. Northwestern Public Service Co., 341 U.S. 246, 71 S.Ct. 692, 95 L.Ed. 912 (1951), Justice Jackson, writing for the Court, stated: 47 As frequently happens where jurisdiction depends on subject matter, the question whether jurisdiction exists has been confused with the question whether the complaint states a cause of action.... Petitioner asserted a cause of action under the Power Act. To determine whether that claim is well founded, the District Court must take jurisdiction, whether its ultimate resolution is to be in the affirmative or the negative. If the complaint raises a federal question, the mere claim confers power to decide that it has no merit, as well as to decide that it has. 48 Id. at 249. The Court quoted from Justice Holmes: [I]f the plaintiff really makes a substantial claim under an act of Congress there is jurisdiction whether the claim ultimately be held good or bad. Id. (quoting from The Fair v. Kohler Die Co., 228 U.S. 22, 25, 33 S.Ct. 410, 412, 57 L.Ed. 716 (1913)). The Court concluded by saying: 49 We think there was power in the District Court to decide whether the claims so grounded constitute a cause of action maintainable in federal court and, if so, whether it is sustained on the facts. We think a direction [by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals] to dismiss for want of jurisdiction was error and that it should not stand as a precedent. 50 Id. Accord Amgen, Inc. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n, 902 F.2d 1532, 1536, 14 USPQ2d 1734, 1738 (Fed.Cir.1990), Lackhouse v. Merit Systems Protection Bd., 773 F.2d 313, 316 (Fed.Cir.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1049, 106 S.Ct. 1271, 89 L.Ed.2d 580 (1986). See also Ralston Steel Corp. v. United States, 169 Ct.Cl. 119, 340 F.2d 663 (Ct.Cl.), cert. denied, 381 U.S. 950, 85 S.Ct. 1803, 14 L.Ed.2d 723 (1965). 51 In the case of Do-Well Machine Shop, Inc. v. United States, 870 F.2d 637, 639-40 (Fed.Cir.1989), the issue was whether a successful affirmative defense of a time bar, raised by the Government against a claim for money due under a contract, went to the jurisdiction of the forum, or was a question of failure to state a claim for which relief could be granted. This court held it was not a matter of jurisdiction, saying: 52 The distinction between lack of jurisdiction and failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, is an important one: [T]he court must assume jurisdiction to decide whether the allegations state a cause of action on which the court can grant relief as well as to determine issues of fact arising in the controversy. Jurisdiction, therefore, is not defeated as respondents seem to contend, by the possibility that the averments might fail to state a cause of action on which petitioners could actually recover.... Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 682, 66 S.Ct. 773, 776, 90 L.Ed. 939 (1946). 53 To the extent a successful claim against the government requires compliance with all statutory elements of the claim, failure of proof of an element of the cause of action means the petitioner is not entitled to the relief he seeks. To conclude in such a case that the petitioner loses because the forum is without jurisdiction is to obscure the nature of the defect. It would be more accurate to conclude that the petitioner has failed to prove the necessary elements of a cause for which relief could be granted. The forum had jurisdiction to hear the matter in the first instance--that is, subject-matter jurisdiction existed--as long as the petitioner asserted nonfrivolous claims. As was said in Ralston Steel, [w]here an Act of Congress ... or an executive regulation ... arguably confers such rights [to relief] upon the claimant, the court will assume jurisdiction and decide his case on the merits, even though the defendant may ultimately prevail. 340 F.2d at 667-68. Cf. Christianson v. Colt Indus. Operating Corp., 486 U.S. 800, 108 S.Ct. 2166, 100 L.Ed.2d 811 (1988) (under the well-pleaded complaint rule, whether a district court has federal-question jurisdiction over a claim must be determined from what necessarily appears in the plaintiff's statements of his own claim in the bill or declaration....). 54 Unfortunately, in suits against the Federal Government these two notions have not always been kept separate. Failure to prove a claim, it is sometimes said, means that the claimant did not come within the scope of the authorized waiver of sovereign immunity, and thus the forum must have lacked jurisdiction to hear the cause. Some of the cases coming here from the MSPB illustrate the point. These are the cases in which the facts which establish jurisdiction are intertwined with the facts which determine the merits of the cause. 55 For example, in a case in which a petitioner before the MSPB alleges that he has been wrongly terminated from Federal employment, the Government's defense is sometimes that the petitioner voluntarily resigned, in which case there could not be a wrongful removal. The MSPB, after full hearing and upon concluding from the evidence that there was a voluntary resignation, will sometimes dismiss the claim for lack of jurisdiction. See, e.g., Lamb v. United States Postal Serv., 46 M.S.P.R. 470 (1990); Schumert v. United States Postal Serv., 41 M.S.P.R. 350 (1989). The difficulty with this is that obviously the MSPB had jurisdiction to hear and decide the case. The failure was simply petitioner's inability to establish a key factual element of his cause of action. The MSPB correctly concluded that it could not grant relief on those facts, but it was not for lack of jurisdiction. 56 This mislabelling of the result is not entirely the MSPB's alone. Language in cases decided in this court has not always been consistent with the basic principle discussed above, or with the language of other Federal Circuit cases. 11 In the recent case of Cruz v. Department of Navy, 934 F.2d 1240 (Fed.Cir.1991) (in banc ), there is language to the effect that a failure by the employee to prove that his resignation was voluntary means that the Board never had jurisdiction to hear the case in the first instance: Here the Board never had jurisdiction.... That Cruz' resignation was not found to be voluntary until November 25, 1988 does not change its voluntary nature at its birth on February 16, 1988. The Board had no jurisdiction at that point and did not acquire jurisdiction thereafter. Id. at 1247. 12 57 Obviously this cannot be taken literally for all purposes, since the outcome turns on a state of facts that cannot be known until after the Board, and on appeal, this court, has taken jurisdiction and decided them. In Cruz, the question being addressed by the court when it made that statement was whether a pendent claim of discrimination could be decided by the MSPB when the principal issue--whether there was an involuntary removal--had already been decided, both by the MSPB and by this court, against the employee. The court correctly concluded that, absent proof of a cause of action for involuntary removal, there was nothing to which the discrimination claim could append. 58 As Cruz illustrates, the nicety with which the result is characterized does not necessarily affect the correctness of the outcome. However, when determining the agency primarily affected by a decision for purposes of identifying the proper party respondent, correct legal characterization of the result is essential. For such purposes, when we refer to cases involving the jurisdiction of the MSPB, we do not include cases the merits of which turn on the existence of a state of facts when those facts happen also to be the factual predicate for jurisdiction. When a nonfrivolous claim for relief has been asserted before the Board, and the outcome is determined by whether the facts support that claim, a decision by the Board that they do not is a failure to prove the claim, not a lack of jurisdiction in the Board. The respondent in such a case is the employing agency, not the MSPB. 59 In the case before us, the Board did not purport to decide the merits of the underlying factual issues, but applying the well-pleaded complaint rule and assuming the facts as alleged, it determined that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. The issue we are here to judge is whether the MSPB's jurisdictional call was correct. The MSPB is the proper party respondent. See Amin v. Merit Systems Protection Bd., 951 F.2d 1247, 1251-52 (Fed.Cir.1991). The motion of the DVA to recaption the case is denied.