Court Opinion

ID: 9895207
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-11-06 15:00:47.52883+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:41.525161
License: Public Domain

Case: 23-2242     Document: 17    Page: 1   Filed: 11/06/2023

           NOTE: This order is nonprecedential.

   United States Court of Appeals
       for the Federal Circuit
                   ______________________

                  DAVID B. NOLAN, SR.,
                       Petitioner

                             v.

                DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY,
                         Respondent
                   ______________________

                         2023-2242
                   ______________________

    Petition for review of the Merit Systems Protection
 Board in No. DC-1221-17-0681-W-1.
                 ______________________

                       ON MOTION
                   ______________________

     Before LOURIE, MAYER, and STARK, Circuit Judges.
 PER CURIAM.
                        ORDER
     In response to this court’s August 30, 2023, order to
 show cause, the Department of Energy urges dismissal of
 this petition for review as untimely. David B. Nolan, Sr.,
 responds and moves “for a U.S. Supreme Court referral,”
 ECF No. 11 at 1, and summary judgment, ECF No. 12.
Case: 23-2242     Document: 17     Page: 2    Filed: 11/06/2023

 2                                           NOLAN v. ENERGY

     In 2001, the Merit Systems Protection Board rejected
 Mr. Nolan’s challenge to his removal from the Department,
 including Mr. Nolan’s assertion that the agency action was
 the result of discrimination. Nolan v. Dep’t of Energy, No.
 DC-0752-01-0289-I-1, 2001 WL 1620680 (M.S.P.B. May 17,
 2001). In 2017, Mr. Nolan filed the present action at the
 Board, alleging retaliation for whistleblowing activity. The
 Board docketed the action as an individual right of action
 (“IRA”) appeal and issued its final decision dismissing the
 action on May 25, 2023. On July 28, 2023, this court re-
 ceived Mr. Nolan’s petition.
     Under 5 U.S.C. § 7703(b)(1)(B), a petition for this
 court’s review of a final decision by the Board in an IRA
 appeal must be filed “within 60 days after the Board issues
 notice of the final . . . decision.” The court has found iden-
 tical language in § 7703(b)(1)(A), for appeals to this court
 from the Board in other types of cases, to provide a deadline
 that is mandatory and jurisdictional, and thus cannot be
 waived or equitably tolled. Fedora v. Merit Sys. Prot. Bd.,
 848 F.3d 1013, 1016 (Fed. Cir. 2017). Here, we received the
 petition outside of that deadline, and we conclude dismissal
 is appropriate. We also see no reason to certify a question
 to the Supreme Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1254(2). See Ruth-
 erford v. Am. Med. Ass’n, 379 F.2d 641, 644–45 (7th Cir.
 1967). *

     *    Mr. Nolan’s suggestion that this is a “mixed case”
 generally subject to review in federal district court, see
 Perry v. Merit Sys. Prot. Bd., 582 U.S. 420 (2017), conflates
 this action with his prior 2001 case. The Board treated the
 present matter solely as an IRA appeal and not a direct ap-
 peal from the removal action. Thus, as this matter has
 come to us on review, it is not a mixed case. See Ash v. Off.
 of Pers. Mgmt., 25 F.4th 1009, 1011 (Fed. Cir. 2022)
Case: 23-2242      Document: 17   Page: 3     Filed: 11/06/2023

 NOLAN v. ENERGY                                            3

    Accordingly,
    IT IS ORDERED THAT:
    (1) The case is dismissed.
    (2) All pending motions are denied.
    (3) Each side shall bear its own costs.
                                              FOR THE COURT

 November 6, 2023
      Date

 (“Individual Right of Action appeals cannot be mixed
 cases . . . .”).