Court Opinion

ID: 9496325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:23:27.518913+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:30.038637
License: Public Domain

PAULINE NEWMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. Mr. Musick and the Department of Energy negotiated a settlement agreement in which he agreed to resign and the agency agreed to purge the files of all information concerning his removal. The purpose was clear, and clearly understood: it was to protect the employee from having the record of his sullied past affect future employment opportunity. Although one may debate the wisdom of such agency agreement, it is not here at issue. What is at issue is the failure of the agency to comply with its *1371part of the bargain. The settlement agreement states:
3. In consideration of the aforementioned terms and the agreement not to pursue any other actions based upon the facts in the MSPB appeal mentioned above, DOE agrees to remove all documentation relating to and culminating in Mr. Musick’s removal, dating back to January 1998 where the Agency proposed to place Mr. Musick on enforced sick leave, and including all documentation proposing to remove Mr. Musick from his position from his Official Personnel File (OPF). DOE also agrees to replace the August 28, 1999 Removal action from his OPF and replace it with a Resignation action dated August 28, 1999....
The agency states that it purged the “Official” file kept in the National Archives and Records Center in St. Louis, but did not purge other files of the Department of Energy. The agency states that this is the only file that is required to be purged.
The unpurged information apparently continues to be provided to prospective employers. Board Member Slavet in dissent pointed out that the purge was not limited to the archived file, and that “there is no question that the agency’s agreement to purge its records was a material term of the agreement.” The agency refused to purge its files when the inadequacy of its compliance was pointed out by Mr. Musick, stating that these were not the “Official Personnel File.”
The panel majority holds that the agency was obligated to do no more than purge what it calls the Official Personnel File, and that it is irrelevant whether the files that continue to be kept at the agency personnel office, or other site that a potential employer might contact, have been purged. It is conceded that the agency preserved these files unpurged; Mr. Mu-sick says he has been unemployable for the past four years because of divulgation of damaging information in those files.
The record suggests that the agency views only one file as “Official.” However, it is undisputed that other personnel files are maintained by the agency and at the employment location. The agency states that Mr. Musick’s Official Personnel Folder was moved to the National Archives and Records Center on April 11, 2000, and that it was purged of the relevant documents “sometime around the settlement date” of January 7, 2000. The agency further states that any other files are not subject to the agreement, and need not be purged. However, all such files are included in the settlement obligation, as is made clear by the term “including” in the settlement agreement. It is undisputed that un-purged files remain at hand at the agency, that they contain the material that the government had agreed would be removed, and that the information therein was divulged.
Precedent makes clear that all personnel files maintained by the government must be purged. In King v. Department of the Navy, 130 F.3d 1031, 1032-34 (Fed.Cir.1997), the Navy agreed to “remove all reference to the removal action from her Official Personnel File.” Ms. King later learned that references to the removal action, although removed from the Navy’s personnel files, still existed in the files of the Office of Personnel Management and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service. The Board held that the “reference in the settlement agreement to Petitioner’s ‘official personnel file’ means only the personnel file in the possession of the Navy, and does not include the personnel files of OPM and DFAS.” Id. at 1033. The Federal Circuit reversed, stating:
When an employee voluntarily resigns in exchange for purging of the records that show the prior adverse action, the *1372employee’s goal, to which the agency has agreed, is to eliminate this information as it may affect future employment with the government or elsewhere. As was explained in Thomas v. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 124 F.3d 1439, 1442 (Fed.Cir.1997), “the agency’s agreement to deny to potential future employers, including other agencies of the United States Government, the truth about Thomas’s performance at HUD was the major benefit that Thomas received in exchange for agreeing to resign from his position.”
By correcting only those files in the hands of the Navy, and by retaining references in official government personnel files to the action that was subsequently revoked, Petitioner was denied the benefit of her agreement.
Here, however, the information Petitioner seeks to have expunged is no more than what the government agreed to.
It appears to be undisputed that the mutual intent was to purge the personnel records that are officially kept and thus might be available to a future employer; no other reasonable meaning has been proposed. The settlement agreement applies to official personnel files where those files exist. It is highly unlikely that the parties bargained for the purging of only local personnel records, while the main personnel files at the Office of Personnel Management, as well as official files at DFAS, retain the undesired information.
King, 130 F.3d at 1033-34. This precedent is contravened by the panel majority’s holding that the agency was not obligated to purge the agency personnel records that it retained.
In King the agreement stated that all reference to the removal action would be removed from her Official Personnel File, and the government interpreted this as meaning only the agency file and not also the OPM file. In Mr. Musick’s case, the agreement contained the same provision, and the government interpreted this as meaning only the archived file and not any other agency files. The court in King clarified that when an agreement is made to resign in exchange for cleansing of adverse material from the official record, the intent of that agreement extends to all government personnel records that are officially kept, wherever those files exist. See Id. at 1034 (“It is highly unlikely that the parties bargained for the purging of only local personnel records, while the main personnel files at the Office of Personnel Management, as well as official files at DFAS, retain the undesired information.”). In Mr. Musick’s case, it is highly unlikely that the parties bargained for the purging of only the archived personnel records, while the local personnel records retain the undesired information. By purging only the archived file, Mr. Musick was denied the benefit of his agreement with the agency.
An agreement is construed in accordance with the understanding under which it was reached. In accordance with that understanding, it becomes irrelevant whether the records archived are designated within the government as the “Official Personnel File,” as the government states. When the intention of the parties was to include all files kept by the government in its official capacity as employer, that intent must be implemented. The panel majority’s remand for determination of whether any document referring to Mr. Musick’s removal was retained in the designated Official Personnel File is not the answer, for it leaves Mr. Musick subject to the unpurged agency files. The issue is not the technical designation of which file is the “Official Personnel File,” but whether *1373the parties intended that all files that were officially kept would be purged as agreed.