Court Opinion

ID: 9476272
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:51:47.320758+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:13.372087
License: Public Domain

NICHOLS, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join in the court’s judgment and in the opinion except where it conflicts with what follows.
The Congress, in provisions now codified in 31 U.S.C. §§ 1344 and 1349, which must be read together, has undertaken to place misuse of a government automobile or air*395craft somewhat in the category of malum per se, in contrast to misuse of other government property, which is only malum prohibitum. A superficial lawyer’s reading, and doubtless that of many lay persons, including petitioner herein until instructed otherwise, would make the prohibition apply to home-to-work transportation only. Stem punishment is provided, but only for a “willful” violator. Nonwillful ones are presumably to be dealt with as willful or nonwillful misuse of a government boat might be, i.e., with greater clemency. This generates the interesting discussion which is the essence of this case: how you interpret the word “willful” in its application to a violation resulting from a good faith nonfrivolous mistake as to the meaning of the law and its relationship to other aspects of an employee’s or supervisor’s duties.
Felton was supervisor for 60 days according to a somewhat fey practice of her agency with respect to its field offices. She enjoyed for that time the mouth-filling and imposing title of “interim rotating acting office director.” If the post of supervisor there was vacant, instead of designating an acting supervisor for as long as needed, the agency made each of the rank and file supervisor for a time, thus assuring that no acting supervisor would really learn the supervisor’s duties. If the supervisor wanted, as here, to be acquainted with the true intent of an obscurely worded law, she enjoyed minimum help from the agency in becoming prepared to deal with her problem. An employee, whose services were much needed, had suffered a car breakdown on the freeway: not only a personal disaster, but one for the agency if it could not help to get the problem solved and the employee back at her desk. Felton, as supervisor, authorized use of the official car to help in rescuing the employee’s car. I am not holding this was a violation of the statute, if rightly construed. Congress left the term “official purpose” undefined except with respect to home-to-work transportation, obviously the evil chiefly targeted, as Felton perceived. A subjective “official purpose,” a purpose so mere as to keep the office running, might or might not be enough. Assuming, however, that Felton’s construction was erroneous, this by itself apparently triggers the MSPB’s draconian rule. It allows no margin for honest error. If Felton knew, as she did, that the statute existed, she must pay the penalty whether she deserved to or not. It would make more sense, be fairer, and more consistent, to revive the ancient maxim: Ignorantia juris non ex-cusat and punish her just the same if she did not know of the statute. Why take the trouble to learn anything about the laws if you are to be punished only if you know something about them but not enough?
This court refers to Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 72 S.Ct. 240, 96 L.Ed. 288 (1952) in which Justice Jackson read the common law element of scienter into a statutory definition of a crime that omitted that element. It has been ever since a favorite Supreme Court opinion on statutory construction to many connoisseurs. It would seem to follow that a statutory definition of a crime, including the word “willful,” requires something more of a guilty mind than common law scienter does. The statute here involved, while ostensibly not criminal, is essentially punitive in nature. So far as it differs from the criminal, the differences are not advantageous to the accused: for example, apparently it does not allow for prosecutorial discretion, and proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not required. Being punitive, however, it should be strictly construed.
In Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Thurston, 469 U.S. 111, 105 S.Ct. 613, 83 L.Ed.2d 523 (1985), the Supreme Court teaches what more than scienter must appear if a violation of one of these civil-penal statutes is to be held “willful.” The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 626(b), is held “punitive” so far as it assesses double damages for a “willful” violation. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 469 U.S. at 125, 105 S.Ct. at 623. The legislative history is cited and shows a criminal penalty for violation was altered before enactment to assess double damages, for the greater convenience of prosecutors. Citing with approval decisions of lower *396courts in other cases, the Court then approves their holding, and that of the decision under review, that for the employer’s violation to be “willful,” it must have shown a “reckless disregard” for the question of whether its conduct was prohibited. Id. at 126, 105 S.Ct. at 624. The Court cites decisions of its own applying like standards to other statutes prescribing punishments for “willful” violations. Then it goes on to reject the view that a violation is “willful” if the employer is “cognizant of an appreciable possibility” there might be a violation or if he “knew the ADEA was ‘in the picture.’ ” Id. at 127, 105 S.Ct. at 625. TWA’s action having been taken on faith of legal advice and after careful consideration, it was not taken in “reckless disregard.” Id. at 129, 105 S.Ct. at 626.
Felton was supervisor for 60 days, and made her decision after such careful consideration as its spot nature allowed. She supposed the Act prohibited home-to-work transportation in an official car, not a wholly unreasonable supposition for a lay person. She was not provided a lawyer at her elbow. If she had, he might have erred still as TWA’s lawyers did. She acted for the good of the service and to resolve a crisis that threatened the performance of the EEOC’s legal duties.
The MSPB’s draconic standard is wholly at odds with the one our highest court has prescribed for fairness to a major airline. If the latter is good enough for TWA, it is good enough for an uninformed temporary supervisor saddled for 60 days with the task of managing an isolated field activity. On the entire record, the MSPB decision is not supported by substantial, or any evidence, and must be reversed.