Court Opinion

ID: 9447536
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:37:10.136014+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:04.993637
License: Public Domain

*119KALODNER, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) .
I agree with the-majority’s holding “* * * that Treasury Department Order No. 150-27 and the regulations issued thereunder do not delegate to the District Director the authority to dismiss the appellant.”
In my opinion the holding stated is dis-positive of this appeal and requires reversal of the judgment of the District Court which was premised on a contrary view.
Treasury Department Order No. ISO-27, issued June 26, 1953 by Secretary of the Treasury George M. Humphrey, clearly did not include express authority to the District Director to dismiss, remove or separate an Internal Revenue employee, such as the appellant here. Cognizant of that fact, the District Director, in the instant case, urges that Personnel Circular 109 (Revised), Supplement 5, issued by the Treasury Department Director of Personnel on July 7, 1953 — eleven days subsequent to Order No. 150-27 — delegated to the District Director authority to dismiss his employees. The District Director says that the Director of Personnel was authorized to issue Personnel Circular No. 109 pursuant to the terms of Treasury Department Order No. 120, effective July 31,1950 and Treasury Department Order No. 72, effective October 10, 1946, both promulgated by Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder.
The majority subscribes to the District Director’s contention and bases its affirmance of the District Court’s judgment on that subscription.
I disagree with the majority’s view in this respect.
The District Director’s resort to the 1946 and 1950 Treasury Department Orders in an attempt to give validity to Personnel Circular No. 109 issued eleven days after the 1953 Treasury Department Order, is an obvious “boot-strap” operation which cannot be countenanced.
It is true that the 1946 Treasury Department Order, delegated to the Director of Personnel “all authority vested in me to take final action on matters pertaining to the employment, direction and general administration of personnel under the Treasury Department.” It is also true that the 1950 Treasury Department Order provided that all officers, employees, and agencies of the Treasury Department “shall continue to perform the functions they were authorized to perform immediately prior to the [Treasury] Reorganization Plan [effective July 31, 1950] and authorized regulations and procedures in effect immediately prior to the effective date of the Reorganization Plan shall continue in effect until changed by the appropriate authority.” (Emphasis supplied.)
However, the 1953 Order, issued by Secretary of the Treasury Humphrey, as the majority has held, did not include any authority to discharge and it thus “changed by appropriate authority” the “authorized regulations and procedures in effect” under the provisions of the 1950 and 1946 Orders.
Moreover, prior to the 1953 Order, Personnel Circular No. 109 (Revised), dated March 1, 1951, which it specifically incorporated by reference, delegated to Heads of Bureaus certain personnel powers excluding those stated in Paragraph 4 of that Circular, and included in such exclusions was “Separations”. Thus, the situation which obtained under the 1951 Personnel Circular made it mandatory for all Separations to receive “prior approval of the Department.”
Since Secretary Humphrey’s 1953 Order did not include “Separations” in his new delegations to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and further included by specific reference the 1951 Personnel Circular which excluded “Separations” without prior approval by the Secretary of the Treasury, the District Director was without authority in the instant case to dismiss the appellant.
*120It is clear from the foregoing that the 1953 Personnel Circular, issued by the Director of Personnel eleven days after the promulgation of Secretary Humphrey’s 1953 Order, was an attempted usurpation of authority by a subordinate and its unauthorized “delegation” of dismissal powers to the District Director was invalid.
For reasons stated I would reverse the judgment of the District Court and remand with instructions to enter judgment in favor of the appellant.