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‘Mixed-case’ appeals must be heard by district court, says US Supreme Court

‘Mixed-case’ appeals must be heard by district court, says US Supreme Court

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A federal employee seeking judicial review of a Merit Systems Protection Board decision dismissing an employment related “mixed-case” appeal must go to district court, not the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously ruled.

The plaintiff in the case, a Department of Labor employee, took a leave of absence and filed a discrimination claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. When the Labor Department reclassified her as “absent without leave,” she amended the complaint to add a retaliation charge.

She was later terminated, and appealed that action to the MSPB, which was established by federal law to hear appeals of certain adverse employment actions against federal employees, such as dismissals but not discrimination claims.

Rather than pursue claims in separate venues simultaneously, the plaintiff amended the EEOC claim to include an unlawful dismissal claim, and asked that the MSPB claim be dismissed without prejudice.

Her motion was granted, allowing her to refile the MBPB action when the EEOC proceeding was concluded or before Jan. 18, 2007, whichever occurred first.

The plaintiff ultimately lost the EEOC case, and when she refiled with the MSPB after the 2007 date the case was dismissed as untimely.

The plaintiff filed an action in federal district court on the discrimination claim and appealed the Board’s dismissal, but the district court dismissed the case on the grounds that the Federal Circuit had exclusive subject matter jurisdiction. The 8th Circuit affirmed

The Supreme Court granted certiorari and heard arguments in the case in October.

In a unanimous decision, the Court reversed.

Noting that the “intersection of federal civil rights statutes and civil service law has produced a complicated, at times confusing, process for resolving claims of discrimination in the federal workplace,” the Court ultimately held that the district court was the proper forum to hear an appeal of a so-called “mixed case” involving both statutory and civil rights claims.

“Regardless whether the MSPB dismissed her claim on the merits or instead threw it out as untimely, [the plaintiff] brought the kind of case that the [federal law] routes, in crystalline fashion, to district court,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the Court.

U.S. Supreme Court. Kloeckner v. Solis, No. 11-184. Dec. 10, 2011.

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