Court Opinion

ID: 9483722
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:30:06.341657+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:48.404278
License: Public Domain

PLAGER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the decision for the reasons stated by Judge Newman (see Mendoza v. MSPB).
*524In the case before us, the instructions Mr. Toquero received from OPM were confusing at best regarding whether it was necessary to request a reconsideration. No one — not OPM, not the AJ — ever explained or clarified, prior to the dismissal of the appeal by the MSPB, what he must do to have his case considered on the merits. Admittedly OPM has a difficult job, and if it insists that decisions it makes on an application for benefits must be re-made a second time before an applicant can consider the decision final, it is not for this court to say otherwise.
At the same time, there is an obligation on government to make reasonably feasible for the individual the opportunity to ascertain whether his or her rights, including rights to government largess, have been properly determined.1 While all citizens are presumed to know the law, that legal fiction is not equivalent to requiring that an elderly resident of the Philippines must be personally conversant with the intricacies of the Code of Federal Regulations. One might question the wisdom of a petitioner who persists in pursuing appeal after appeal in a case which on its face shows so little promise. But one might equally question the wisdom of a system that permits such pursuit. Congress has provided the system, and it is our job to see that it is administered fairly under the law. This court is continually reviewing pro se appeals by individuals who have been given little help by the form documents the Government issued them. If OPM chooses to improve its standard letters and instructions in order to avoid a recurrence of the problem in this case, all to the good. The fact that few cases may be expected to warrant our intervention detracts not at all from the benefits the general citizenry might derive from clearer and more explicit government guidance in these matters.

. See Charles A. Reich, The New Property After 25 Years, 24 U.S.F. L.Rev. 223 (1990); The New Property, 73 Yale L.J. 733 (1964).