Court Opinion

ID: 9448879
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:47:51.974681+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:35.470967
License: Public Domain

JONES, Chief Judge
(concurring in the result).
The real question in this case is whether the Securities and Exchange Commission, in using the end of the fiscal year as the date at which to calculate retention credits in connection with a necessary reduction in force, acted so unreasonably as to justify this court in finding that its action was arbitrary or capricious. Only if this question can be answered affirmatively would this court be justified in substituting its judgment for that of the agency. It seems doubtful whether the facts justify such judicial substitution of judgment in this ease.
On May 12,1953, the Senate Committee on Appropriations recommended a substantial cut in the Independent Offices Appropriation Bill for the following fiscal year, and on May 20, 1953, the Senate passed the bill with the recommended reduction in funds. Because of this, it appeared to the Commission Chairman, and to the Director of Personnel, that a reduction in force would have to be made. The Director of Personnel was authorized to make the necessary preparations. The proposed reduction involved the separation of 50 of the 800 employees of the agency, 11 of whom were in the division in which plaintiff was employed. The necessary plans were begun approximately 6 weeks before the end of the fiscal year.
It was only natural to expect that the appropriation bill would be passed before the beginning of the new fiscal year, thus it was equally natural for the Commission to plan to rate its employees for retention as of that date, July 1, 1953. When the ratings were computed, it was found that there was a three-way tie between Hall, Olson, and Levinson, each of them having 10y2 years’ retention credit as of June 30, 1953. Civil Service Regulations provide that .in the event of such a tie:
“Half years of service will be used in breaking ties in retention standing, but any ties still remaining will be decided administratively. [CSC Regulations § 20.4(e).]”
When, on July 31, 1953, the reduced appropriation bill finally passed both Houses of Congress and was approved by the President, notices were sent to the plaintiff that he would be separated, pursuant to the reduction-in-force regulations, effective August 31,1953.
If the ratings had been calculated as of July 31 or as of August 31, 1953, plaintiff would have passed an anniversary date, acquiring an extra half-year credit, and Hall would have been separated in his place. He called this fact to the attention *272of the Personnel Director who ruled that the calculations had been made on a fiscal-year-end basis and that it was not practical to recalculate for each succeeding day, except for a tie, and then only for an added half-year or more. It is of note that this decision was affirmed upon appeal to the Civil Service Commission.
In passing on questions of this kind, we should not lose sight of the numerous and complicated problems arising in connection with the administration of a large nation-wide agency. Some of these agencies have many thousands of employees.
The Board of Appeals and Review of the Civil Service Commission, in its denial of plaintiff’s appeal, called attention precisely to this practical side of the matter when it discussed the fact that the one-year credit, and half-year credit for tie breaking were developed for the purpose of solving such difficulties.
At the heart of the majority opinion lies the contention that the Commission was under the “clear mandate” of the Federal Personnel Manual, R3-12 (Jan. 12, 1951) to correct “any error of fact * * * in the register at the time the notice was issued.” The argument is made that the failure to correct plaintiff’s retention rating as of the date of his notice is such an error of fact. I do not agree with this interpretation, although I freely admit the issue is not free from doubt. That is not the nature of the error to which reference is made. The kind of error which was provided for by this portion of the Federal Personnel Manual was a manifest mistake as to the amount of service which plaintiff had performed. As to this, the parties were in agreement. The disagreement here was not as to fact, but as to the manner in which the law is to be applied to the fact in order to determine the amount of retention points to be allowed. We should not apply it in such a manner as to deprive an agency of its “wide measure of discretion in the formulation of rules.” Hilton v. Forrestal, 83 U.S.App.D.C. 44, 165 F.2d 251 (1947).
We need not hold that another method, or even other methods might not have proven satisfactory and reasonable. That is not in issue here. The question is as to the method or system actually used, that is whether this court is justified in finding that the method used in computing retention credits was arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable.
It has been disclosed, however, that the department has adopted a new system that enables it by keeping a record as to the date of employment, to have a continuous record of the relative length of individual service, thus avoiding recalculation from day to day. If this system had been in effect plaintiff would not have been dismissed. There is no explanation as to why this simple method was not used theretofore.
While I do not agree with the reasoning of the majority, yet in view of the change in the system and the fact that it is now in effect, and considering the fact that the meaning of the regulations in effect at the time is not free from doubt, I am concurring in the result.