Court Opinion

ID: 9473281
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:25:04.472418+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:25.762730
License: Public Domain

DAVIS, Circuit Judge, with whom PAULINE NEWMAN, Circuit Judge, joins,
concurring.
I join the court’s opinion but add the following in response to one particular argument petitioner has made to us. That contention is that the Merit Systems Protection Board had jurisdiction over this case because petitioner sought review of allegedly conflicting rules and regulations of the Office of Personnel Management— citing 5 U.S.C. § 1205(a)(4) and (e)(1)(B) as giving the Board that special class of jurisdiction. A major obstacle to accepting that basis for MSPB jurisdiction in this case is that, in my view, petitioner never made it clear, in any understandable way, to the Board that he was invoking that type of jurisdiction. Board review of that special type calls for particular procedures, see 5 C.F.R. § 1203.1 et seq., which differ substantially from the procedures to be followed in the normal appeal case. In seeking review by the Board, petitioner did not follow those separate procedures or indicate that he was seeking that kind of review. Instead, he appeared to invoke — specifically citing 5 C.F.R. § 1201.24 (relating to normal petitions for appeal) — the normal appellate jurisdiction of the MSPB. When asked by the presiding official to respond to the suggestion that the Board lacked jurisdiction, petitioner did not suggest or spell out the special appellate jurisdiction he now says he was invoking. After the presiding official’s initial decision saying that the Board had no jurisdiction, petitioner’s petition for review to the full Board did not alert the Board to the new jurisdictional position he is now taking in this court. The result is that, having failed to make the contention before the Board, he is precluded from raising it before us. James v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 755 F.2d 154, 155 order of February 8, 1985.