Court Opinion

ID: 9476462
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:56:35.348378+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:20.009727
License: Public Domain

PAULINE NEWMAN, Circuit Judge,
with whom FRIEDMAN and DAVIS, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting.
This court has now decided to eliminate pension rights that have existed for some sixty years. The majority has determined that the civil service law must yield to the military law, and concluded that Congress never intended to grant civilian pension rights to service academy graduates, although they have been granted for decades. Thus, the majority has determined that the administrators of the civil service law have long been in conflict with the military law. In the course of this determination the majority has extended the military law beyond its reasonable context.
This court today finds a long-standing civil service practice, that of crediting time as a midshipman toward civil service retirement, to be in conflict with the laws governing the military service. The majority expresses no surprise that such a conflict has not been spotted until now, but is not daunted in taking corrective action.
The majority does not hold that the administrative agency’s practices have conflicted with the civil service laws they have implemented over the decades. The law governing civil service retirement credits for military veterans who serve in the civil service is the civil service law, not the military law. Nevertheless, to remedy this newly-discovered conflict, the majority not only reinterprets the civil service law in effect between 1956 and October 1, 1982, but also the corresponding laws before 1956 and after October 1, 1982 — although they have not been challenged. The majority thus concludes that time in the service academies shall not be counted toward civilian pensions, whether or not a military pension is paid. That is a much broader issue than the one on which this appeal arose.
OPM and the MSPB agree that the pre-1956 and post-1982 laws authorize the civil service pension credits here eliminated. The 1982 amendment, according to the OPM, changed the law that OPM relies on in the action at bar, which deals solely with the 1956-1982 period. The majority, in its ruling that the General Military Law always barred these civil service pension credits, has declared the entire operation illegal from the start.

The Military Laws

The majority relies on the following provision in the General Military Law, 10 U.S.C. § 971(b):
In computing length of service for any purpose—
(1) no officer of the Navy or Marine Corps may be credited with service as a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy or as a cadet at the United States Military Academy, United States Air Force Academy, or United States *1534Coast Guard Academy, if he was appointed as a midshipman or cadet after March 4, 1913....
This text in various forms has coexisted in unchallenged harmony with the civil service statutes. The military law does not state that service as a midshipman may not be considered by any other law for the purpose of such other law, but refers solely to computations of length of service as an officer under the military law.
The context of this provision illustrates its scope and meaning. The preceding section, 10 U.S.C. § 971(a), states:
Service Credit: officers may not count enlisted service performed while serving as cadet or midshipman.
Section 971(a) prevents officers from counting as enlistment time their service at a military academy. Section 972(b) then provides that time in the academy is not to be counted in computing the officer’s length of service for any purpose. The limitation of section 971 to “officers” illustrates Congress’ intent to legislate only an officer’s longevity credits, not a civilian’s. Neither section (a) nor (b) discusses any impact on a civilian’s future opportunities that may recognize and credit his or her military past.
Section 971(b) originated, and for most of its history appeared in, the military appropriations acts, dealing with military pay, military allotments and allowances, military retirement, etc. The provisions of a statute must be read in context. See Rickards v. United States, 369 U.S. 1, 11, 82 S.Ct. 585, 591-92, 7 L.Ed.2d 492 (1962) (“ ‘we must not be guided by a single sentence or member of a sentence, but [should] look to the provisions of the whole law, and to its object and policy.’ ”) (brackets in original) (quoting Mastro Plastics Corp. v. Labor Board, 350 U.S. 270, 285, 76 S.Ct. 349, 359, 100 L.Ed. 309 (1956)).
It is reasonable to read these provisions as intended to exclude military academy time from all calculations of service obligations and service pay based on length of service. Such reading is supported by the context in which these provisions arose, and is in complete harmony with the civil service procedures here struck down. For example, in the Act of June 7, 1924 the subject provision appeared in the following context:
TITLE I — MILITARY ACTIVITIES AND OTHER EXPENSES OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT INCIDENT THERETO
* * * * * *
Finance Department Pay, and So Forth of the Army
* * * * * *
For additional pay to officers for length of service, $5,374,830: Provided, that in computing for any purpose the length of service of any officer of the Army who was appointed to the United States Military Academy or the United States Naval Academy ... the time spent at either academy shall not be counted.
Ch. 291, 43 Stat. 892, 895-96. These provisions, of which the majority has provided a comprehensive list, were codified in 1934 as part of Title 10, as follows:
Chapter 25 — PAY AND ALLOWANCES
******
Longevity Pay
******
§ 684. Time served as cadet at Military or Naval Academy. The service of a cadet who has been appointed to the United States Military Academy or to the United States Naval Academy, since August 24, 1912, or who shall hereafter be appointed to either of those academies, shall not be counted in computing for any purpose the length of service of an officer of the Army.
******
Chapter 26 — RETIREMENT
******
SERVICE COUNTED IN DETERMINING RIGHT TO RETIREMENT
§ 952. Period of cadetship at Military or Naval Academy. In computing for any purpose the length of service of any officer of the Army appointed after Au*1535gust 24, 1912, the time spent at either academy shall not be counted.
The corresponding sections that were eventually transferred to 10 U.S.C. § 971 were 10 U.S.C. §§ 3682; 6116; 8682 (1958). The accompanying “Historical and Revision Notes” state that Congress did not intend to make substantive changes. It is a fair and consistent reading of these statutes to limit their scope to the military purposes which they serve.
Nothing in these sections of the military law bars any other law from counting military academy time for the purpose of such other law. It is reasonable, and it avoids the conflict here created, to view these statutes as they have always been viewed, as pertaining to their own area of authority-
The civil service laws have contained many and varied provisions relating to veterans’ rights as civilian employees in the civil service. Included have been duplicate pension credits for disabled veterans and credits for military service that is not counted in computing military retirement pay. Even during the period here disputed by OPM, the civil service retirement acts have consistently been administered to include in civilian pension calculations certain military service credits that the military laws expressly exclude. This administration of the civil service law has not been deemed inimical to the military law. To the contrary, these statutes have, until today, coexisted.
Title 10 and Title 5 are readily construed in harmony, merely by recognizing that the words “for any purpose” in 10 U.S.C. § 971 can reasonably be construed to mean for any purpose governed by Title 10.1 The bar in Title 10 against the inclusion of military academy time arose before the general civil service retirement laws came into existence. See 41 Stat. 614, Act of May 22, 1920 (“An Act for the retirement of employees in the classified civil service, and for other purposes”). The 1912 military law can not have been aimed at nonexistent civil service retirement practices.2 Then and now, it applies to those matters controlled by the military.

The Civil Service Retirement Laws

The 1920 Civil Service Retirement Act, as the present Act, contemplated the inclusion of military service in civil service retirement calculations, excluding only “the period of his or her military or naval service upon which such [military] pension or compensation is based”. 41 Stat. at 615.
This text was continued in the 1930 Civil Service Retirement Act, which was administered, according to the Federal Personnel Manual (“FPM”), as follows:
Credit is allowed for all honorable military or naval service ... with the following exceptions:
(1) If an employee receives retired pay on account of military or naval service, the period of service upon which retired pay is based shall be excluded.
Tables I and III ... may be used for determinations as to whether service was active military service [for civil service retirement credit]. Table I, [beginning on] page Vl-12, lists the parts of the armed forces of the United States.
FPM R5-29.02 (July 11,1946). Table I lists the following “components” of the Regular Navy:
Commissioned and enlisted personnel Navy Nurse Corps
*1536Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy
FPM Vl-13 (July 19, 1945).
The OPM and the Board agree: “There is no question that this language [referring to 5 U.S.C. § 707 of the 1930 Act] permitted credit for periods of military service that were not considered in calculating an employee’s military retired pay.” (OPM Brief at 8) (emphasis in original). It was uncontested in the case at bar that civil service retirement credit under the 1930 Act included time in the military academies. Indeed, OPM relies on this position in support of its theory that the 1956 Act made a change in the governing law.
In 1956 the Civil Service Retirement Act was amended in major ways not here pertinent. 5 U.S.C. § 707 became 5 U.S.C. § 8332(c), as follows:
(c) Except as provided by subsection (d) of this section, an employee or Member shall be allowed credit for periods of military service before the date of the separation on which title to annuity is based. However, if an employee or Member is awarded retired pay on account of military service, his military service may not be credited unless the retired pay is awarded
(1) on account of a service-connected disability—
(A) incurred in combat with an enemy of the United States; or
(B) caused by an instrumentality of war and incurred in line of duty during a period of war as defined by section 301 of title 38; or
(2) under chapter 67 of title 10.
According to OPM’s argument, this enactment changed the calculation of civil service retirement to eliminate military academy time, because it replaced the pre-1956 words:
the period of military or naval service upon which such retired pay is based shall not be included ...
with the words:
his military service may not be credited.... OPM states that this change meant that if an employee received any military retired pay whatsoever, the employee would no longer receive civil service retirement credit for any uncredited military service. Under this interpretation, the retiree would receive neither civil nor military service retirement credit for those periods of military service not included in the calculation of military retired pay.
The MSPB, disagreeing with the OPM, interpreted this word change as merely continuing the exclusion of dual retirement credit except for disabled veterans. The Board stated: “OPM’s interpretation of the law would have the effect of denying any credit under any system for the 2Jk years of [Jeffrey’s] Academy service. This was not the intent of Congress prior to 1956 nor after 1982. As to the exact intent of Congress in passing the 1956 legislation, the agency has offered no evidence to support its contention that the law was being deliberately changed.” Jeffrey v. Office of Personnel Management, No. DC08318410693, slip. op. at 4 (MSPB Jan. 8,1985) (emphasis in original).
The legislative history accompanying the 1956 enactment supports the MSPB’s view that no substantive change was intended. The House Report identified those employees who would be affected by the Act. H.R.Rep. No. 2854, 84th Cong., 2d Sess. 1, 7-8, 24-25 (1956). There was no reference to persons with military service or military academy time who would lose existing retirement credits toward civil service retired pay; nor was there a calculation of savings to the government if civil service pensions were so reduced.3
Equally absent over all these years was any suggestion of conflict with the General Military Law 10 U.S.C. § 971, the core of the majority decision. Even the OPM did not raise this argument in support of its position.
The Federal Personnel Manual after the 1956 Act continued to provide, without qualification:
*1537Service as Midshipman ... constitutes military service for credit purposes.
FPM R-5-19 (March 20, 1959).
Although Mr. Jeffrey retired before the effective date of the October 1, 1982 Act, OPM relies heavily on the 1982 amendment of 5 U.S.C. § 8332(c) that reinstated the pre-1956 text, as evidence of congressional intent to restore the pre-1956 entitlement to civil'service credit for service academy time, and thus as evidence that a contrary intent prevailed in 1956-1982. The Board disagreed with this theory, and indeed this theory finds no support in the words of the statute, the legislative history, or the longstanding administration of these statutes.
The pertinent regulation continued to prohibit dual payment except for disabled veterans, and the Federal Personnel Manual was not substantively changed in 1982 or later from the prior version, and continues to state that:
[S]ervice as a midshipman ... constitutes military service for credit purposes.
FPM 831-1 Supp. S3-5(b) (September 21, 1981). This practice was constant, before, during, and after the period now challenged by OPM.
The court can not ignore this long-standing interpretation by the agency charged with administering its own law:
First, always, is the question whether Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue. If the intent of Congress is clear, that is the end of the matter; for the court, as well as the agency, must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress. If, however, the court determines Congress has not directly addressed the precise question at issue, the court does not simply impose its own construction on the statute, as would be necessary in the absence of an administrative interpretation. Rather, if the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agency’s answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute.
... [A] court may not substitute its own contruction of a statutory provision for a reasonable interpretation made by the administrator of an agency.
Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 842-44, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2781-82, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984) (emphasis added).
Despite the agency’s consistent and reasonable interpretation and the lack of Congressional address to this asserted longstanding conflict, the majority holds that OPM and its predecessors have always incorrectly construed the law. We have repeatedly held that deference is due to an agency’s interpretation of its own statute. E.g., Minnesota Power & Light Co. v. United States, 782 F.2d 167, 170 (Fed.Cir.1986); Burlington Northern R.R. Co. v. United States, 752 F.2d 627, 629 (Fed.Cir.1985); Al Tech Specialty Steel Corp. v. United States, 745 F.2d 632, 642 (Fed.Cir.1984); Melamine Chemicals Inc. v. United States, 732 F.2d 924, 928 (Fed.Cir.1984); Nabisco, Inc. v. United States, 220 Ct.Cl. 332, 599 F.2d 415, 422 (1979). If Congress intended to forbid that which has been done for decades, its silence is not evidence of that intent.
This longstanding administrative construction is entitled to great weight, particularly when, as here, Congress has revisited the Act and left the practice untouched.
Saxbe v. Bustos, 419 U.S. 65, 74, 95 S.Ct. 272, 279, 42 L.Ed.2d 231 (1974). Accord Zenith Corp. v. United States, 437 U.S. 443, 450, 98 S.Ct. 2441, 2445, 57 L.Ed.2d 337 (1978). See also Consumer Products Division, SCM Corp. v. Silver Reed America, Inc., 753 F.2d 1033, 1039, 3 Fed.Cir.(T) 83, 90 (Fed.Cir. 1985) (agency’s “interpretation of the statute need not be the only reasonable interpretation or the one which the court views as the most reasonable”).
The question is not whether the Federal Personnel Manual has the status of law. The Manual shows the agency practice, and as such is of compelling weight as to agency interpretation of, and the open and notorious coexistence of, these civil and military service laws. It is impertinent to attribute decades of acquiescence of Congress as due to ignorance.
Although agency discretionary authority does not encompass statutory interpreta*1538tions that are contrary to law, until now these military and civil service provisions relating to service academy time have been interpreted in complete harmony. Neither military nor civil agencies have complained of the conflict now found by this court.
The courts are not at liberty to pick and choose among congressional enactments, and when two statutes are capable of co-existence, it is the duty of the courts, absent a clearly expressed congressional intention to the contrary, to regard each as effective.
Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535, 551, 94 S.Ct. 2474, 2483, 41 L.Ed.2d 290 (1974).
There is a judicial obligation to preserve, if possible, rather than to invalidate. Practices that have coexisted for decades should not easily be declared in fatal opposition. The majority has reached a policy decision, not a legal one. The majority believes, for it so states, that it is unfair for service academy graduates, educated at taxpayer expense, to receive civilian pension credits as compared with other veterans. To remedy this perceived inequity the court has created conflict where the legislators and the executive and the administrators have seen none, and has resolved the conflict in accordance with its preference. This is not the role of the judiciary.

. The use of “any purpose” in the military law (emphasis added) is by no means conclusive of the current problem of civilian retirement pay. In United States v. King, 395 U.S. 1, 89 S.Ct. 1501, 23 L.Ed.2d 52 (1969), the Supreme Court had no trouble reading the all-inclusive term "any court of the United States” (emphasis added) in the Declaratory Judgment Act as not including the Court of Claims because the history and ordinary jurisdiction of that court did not chime with the purposes and coverage of the Declaratory Judgment Act.

. Section 971(b) only excludes time at the academy from computations of "the length of service of any officer". According to the majority, those who do not complete their officer obligations but who serve in an enlisted grade, 10 U.S.C. § 6959(b)(1), are not barred from civil service credits. It is curious that, if Congress did not intend academy time to count for any non-military purpose, it would have limited section 971(b) to officers.

. OPM estimated over 16,000 such persons, at a cost of some $60 million; such a saving would reasonably have been mentioned if it were contemplated. (The OPM calculation refers to all military veterans. No calculation limited to service academy graduates has been provided.)