Court Opinion

ID: 9453516
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:15:47.593229+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:41.524134
License: Public Domain

TAMM, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part):
I dissent from those sections of the majority opinion which hold that the *840second and third charges do not support appellant’s discharge. I would therefore affirm the District Court.
The scope of judicial review in a case of this type is an exceedingly narrow one. McTiernan v. Gronouski, 337 F.2d 31, 34 (2nd Cir.1964). If the agency’s decision is not arbitrary or capricious, that is where the agency’s findings are “supported by evidence,” Pelicone v. Hodges, 116 U.S.App.D.C. 32, 33, 320 F.2d 754, 755 (1963), or stated otherwise, where “there is a rational basis for the [agency’s] conclusions * * Eustace v. Day, 114 U.S.App.D.C. 242, 314 F.2d 247 (1962), we have held that the agency’s action must be upheld. Although “[t]here may be ground for reasonable differences of opinion * * * ” on the factual issues, Studemeyer v. Macy, 116 U.S.App.D.C. 120, 121, 321 F.2d 386, 387, cert. denied, 375 U.S. 934, 84 S.Ct. 337, 11 L.Ed.2d 265 (1963), a court will not disturb the agency decision if it is supported by substantial evidence. The record before us, I am convinced, contains more than ample evidence to support the findings of the Hearing Examiner who first heard the charges against appellant. Appellant’s appeal to the Appeals Examining Office resulted, after a detailed review of the evidence, in the upholding of the findings of the trial examiner. Thereafter an appeal to the Board of Appeals and Review of the Civil Service Commission resulted again in an affirmation of the decision against appellant. Finally a careful and experienced District Court Judge, with a full and complete record of all of the facts and evidence before her, concluded that this evidence justified the action against appellant. Upon this record, then, I would affirm the action of the District Court.