Case Report for January 4, 2017
Docket Number: DE-3443-12-0472-C-1
Decision Number: 2017 MSPB 2
The Appellant was separated from her excepted-service position (terminated) within the Department of the Interior during her probationary period. The Appellant filed an appeal of her termination to the Board. The Administrative Judge (AJ), dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because she did not fit the definition of an employee with Board appeal rights. She filed a Petition for Review of the Initial Decision and the Board remanded the matter for further consideration of jurisdiction. The two parties entered into a settlement agreement while the issue of jurisdiction was still unresolved. The agreement needed to be submitted to the Board for Enforcement. The AJ decided that the Board could accept the agreement into record only for the limited purposes of memorializing that the appeal was withdrawn as part of the agreement, thus solving the issue of jurisdiction.
The Appellant filed a Petition for Enforcement of the Remand Initial Decision. That Petition was dismissed because the Board had no jurisdiction (as the jurisdiction had never official been determined in the previous appeal). The Appellant then filed a Petition for Review of the Compliance Initial Decision. The Board subsequently vacated (cancelled) the Compliance Initial Decision and remanded the Compliance Appeal to the Field Office for further adjudication in accordance with the opinion and order. The Board determined that they did have jurisdiction over settlement agreements that had been entered into the record, independent of any prior jurisdiction findings.
Attorney Angel did not represent the above Appellant, but he does represent Appellants within cases before the United States Merit Systems Protection Board.