Court Opinion

ID: 9472200
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:52:32.196049+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:47.835503
License: Public Domain

NIES, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Petitioner states that a single issue is presented for review in this appeal:
Are all veterans preference matters within the jurisdiction of the Merit Systems Protection Board?
I conclude that this issue is not properly before us and I would in any event, transfer the case to the United States District Court which petitioner chooses to designate.
Petitioner asserted before the MSPB that IRS was able to use the subject OPM regulation, which allows an agency not to reconsider an applicant for employment who has been considered and passed over three times, as a means of discriminating against him on the basis of his age. As a preference eligible, he also now challenges the application of the regulation to veterans.
It is wholly unnecessary to remand this case to the MSPB as the majority mandates. Such action can only lead to further delay of petitioner’s efforts to have the legality of his non-selection judicially determined. Moreover, any review of the decision of the board after remand is not within the appellate jurisdiction of this court. Rather, review would have to be sought in a U.S. District Court. 5 U.S.C. 7703(b)(2).
Applicants for employment have few bases for appeal to the MSPB. Having lost on *1476his argument before the board that 5 C.F.R. 300.104(a) provided a jurisdictional basis for his appeal, petitioner puts forth a new argument to this court. Not only is it inappropriate to raise this issue for the first time on appeal, but also petitioner's position that the MSPB has jurisdiction over all veterans preference matters is without merit and could not correct the jurisdictional defect of the board or this court.
In essence, petitioner asserts that by Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1978, the MSPB succeeded to all of the authority of the former Civil Service Commission (CSC) and that, since the CSC had authority to hear appeals concerning veterans preference, MSPB must have that authority. However, it is incorrect that MSPB succeeded to all authority of the CSC. Rather, MSPB succeeded to certain appeals authority, OPM taking on other powers of the CSC. To determine what appeals authority lies in the MSPB, one must look to the present statute. No basis for petitioner’s appeal to the MSPB can be found therein.
This does not mean that petitioner is without a right to review, given the serious nature of his charges, but only that he started proceedings in the wrong forum. To avoid any statute of limitations problem, I would transfer proceedings to a district court which can develop all of the facts surrounding his removal, rule on the validity of -the OPM regulation as applied to veterans, and resolve the issue of whether petitioner was discriminated against because of his age. Petitioner will undoubtedly end up in a trial in the district court regardless of what the MSPB does, so that it would be most expeditious to recognize that this is a case involving an issue of age discrimination, over which we have no jurisdiction, and simply transfer proceedings to a district court at this time in accordance with Williams v. Department of the Army, 715 F.2d 1485 (Fed.Cir.1983).