Court Opinion

ID: 9474145
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:49:02.499814+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:55.397498
License: Public Domain

MIKVA, Circuit Judge,
dissenting from Part IV:
I dissent from the majority’s holding in Part IV that an employee never suffers a *1200reduction in rank as long as the employee’s numerical grade and formal position in the organizational ladder remain unchanged. The court acknowledges Fucik’s holding, 655 F.2d at 1093, that “relative standing in the agency’s organizational structure” may be adversely affected even when the description or grade of the position remains unchanged. Yet the Court simply declines, without explanation, to follow Fucik. In dismissing Fucik’s reasoning as contrary to the Federal Personnel Manual’s definition of rank, the Court ignores the fact that Fucik is a closely reasoned interpretation of the meaning of that very definition of rank. The definition is given in FPM, Ch. 752.1:
In law and the Commission’s regulations, the term rank means something more than a numerical grade, or class, or level under a classification system or its equivalent in the Federal Wage System. Basically, it means an employee’s relative standing in the agency’s organizational structure, as determined by his official position assignment.
(FPM Chapter 752 was completely revised on September 17, 1980. See FPM Letter 752-11. We rely, of course, on the regulation in effect at the time of Meadows’ reassignment.)
In determining whether an agency’s action results in a reduction in rank, the language of the FPM thus instructs the CSC to examine the actual position held by an employee, rather than relying on the description or grade of the position. See Fucik, 655 F.2d at 1094 & n. 7. As the Court of Claims found in Fucik, id. at 1094, if the position to which an employee has been reassigned is overgraded, then the “transfer would be an instance of reduction in rank without reduction in grade.” Id. Cf. Leefer v. Administrator, NASA, 543 F.2d 209, 211-12 (D.C.Cir.1976) (this Court upheld CSC’s determination of no reduction in rank where CSC compared functions of position initially held by employee with position to which employee was reassigned.) The CSC failed to conduct this examination, although Meadows clearly raised the issue.
Meadows’ argument is that the position to which he was reassigned was overgrad-ed, causing a de facto reduction in his relative rank. As measured by responsibility and job description, Meadows argues, his job was lower in rank than other positions which were at the same nominal grade. Meadows asserts that he had no real work to perform in his new position, that the position was essentially a sham position designed to remove him from his position as Chief of ADP, and that the position description was inaccurate. Since it is undisputed that Meadows’ numerical grade remained at the GS-14 level throughout the period in question, the CSC relied on that constancy of Meadows’ GS-14 status, as well as his unchanged hierarchical position, in determining that the reassignment did not constitute a reduction in rank and therefore left the CSC without jurisdiction to consider Meadows’ appeal. In so doing, the CSC misconstrued its mandate under the FPM to examine an employee’s actual position, as opposed to the description or numerical rank of a position, in determining whether a reduction in rank has occurred. To ignore the substance of an employee’s assignment is to glorify titles and totally disregard the realities of a professional’s workplace. Is a judge who is assigned to count boxes still a judge just because he is called a judge? Does a supervisor maintain his rank when all he is assigned to supervise are blank walls? The majority’s diffidence to Fucik promotes a mischievous doctrine that can erode the whole concept of civil service. The CSC here failed to examine the functions of the position to which Meadows was reassigned, and therefore failed to provide the full reduction in rank analysis mandated by the regulations and by the philosophy of civil service job protection.
Since I would reverse the District Court’s decision of the reassignment, I necessarily also address appellees’ assertion that Meadows’ appeal is barred by the doctrine of laches. While Meadows pursued his administrative remedies in a timely manner, a period of sixteen months elapsed between *1201the dismissal of his suit by the D.C. Court of Appeals and the taking of an appeal to the U.S. District Court. Appellees filed a motion to dismiss with the District Court on the basis of, inter alia, laches. The District Court denied that motion without making any findings.
Meadows now argues that having failed to cross-appeal on the question of laches, appellees are barred from raising it here. In allowing Meadows to proceed, I would not need to decide whether the question of laches is properly before us. Laches could attach here only upon a finding that Meadows was not diligent in pursuing his administrative and/or judicial remedies and that this lack of diligence prejudiced appellees. See Coalition for Canyon Preservation v. Bowers, 632 F.2d 774, 779 (9th Cir.1980). The record does not present sufficient evidence of either of these factors. Moreover, the doctrine of laches is rarely applied in employment cases where the delay is less than eighteen months. Powell v. Zuckert, 366 F.2d 634, 636 & n. 1 (D.C.Cir.1966). In light of the sparseness of the record and the length of the delay, I do not think that the District Court exceeded its discretion in denying appellees’ motion to dismiss on the basis of laches.
I would reverse the District Court’s decision on the reassignment and remand to the District Court with instructions to dispatch the case to the Merit Systems Protection Board to consider whether Meadows’ allegations are true and whether his new position was in fact overgraded.