Abbott v. United States

41 Fed. Cl. 553, 6 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 1067, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 172, 1998 WL 427343
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJuly 24, 1998
DocketNos. 94-651C, 95-475C, 96-92C
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 41 Fed. Cl. 553 (Abbott v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abbott v. United States, 41 Fed. Cl. 553, 6 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 1067, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 172, 1998 WL 427343 (uscfc 1998).

Opinion

OPINION

YOCK, Judge.

These consolidated civilian pay cases1 are before the Court on the defendant’s motion to dismiss one claim of certain plaintiffs on collateral estoppel grounds and on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment on the plaintiffs’ seven claims.2 For the reasons stated below, the defendant’s motion to dismiss one claim of 227 plaintiffs is granted, the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment is granted with respect to liability as to one claim, and the defendant’s cross-motion for summary judgment is granted with respect to six claims.

Factual Background

The plaintiffs are 557 current and former members of the Uniformed Division of the United States Secret Service (“UD”).3 The UD consists of a Headquarters Staff and three branches: the White House Branch, the Foreign Missions Branch, and the Program Support Branch. Members of the UD are federal law enforcement officers assigned to protect the President and Vice President and their immediate families; the White House and its grounds; the Treasury Building and its grounds; the official residence of the Vice President and its grounds; and foreign diplomatic missions in the United States, its territories, and possessions. 3 U.S.C. § 202 (1994).

UD members are generally scheduled to work an eight-hour basic workday, five times each week. In addition to the basic workday, UD members are required to report for roll-call activities. Roll-call time is scheduled for one-half hour each workday and is used for the reading of rolls and other preparation for the daily tom- of duty. By law, roll-call time is uncompensated. Over the course of a two-week pay period, a UD member who works full time, but does not work any overtime, will be scheduled to be on duty for 85 horns, five of those horns being uncompensated roll-call time.

Members of the UD also work overtime. UD members sign up in their assigned unit’s overtime book to indicate their availability to work specific toms of duty which they are not normally scheduled to work. UD members can place their names in the appropriate overtime book from two to sixteen days prior to the date that the overtime is actually worked. In order to fill vacancies arising from scheduled members reporting sick or from other circumstances yielding a manning shortage for a particular tom of duty, a unit’s scheduling officer consults the applicable [556]*556overtime book to determine if volunteers are available to work. If there are not enough volunteers to fill the vacancies, the UD may cancel a member’s day off to fill a position.

Under the basic pay authority governing the UD, the Code of the District of Columbia (“D.C.Code”),4 overtime work is compensated at one and one-half times the UD member’s basic hourly rate.5 The D.C.Code places a cap on the maximum total compensation that a member of the UD may receive during each pay period. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), which also is applicable to the plaintiffs, overtime must be compensated at a rate of one and one-half times the regular rate at which a UD member is employed. The FLSA does not place a cap on the maximum total compensation that a UD member may receive each pay period. For each pay period, the UD calculates each member’s overtime entitlement under both the D.C.Code and the FLSA. The member is entitled to overtime pay under whichever authority provides the greater entitlement.

In addition to overtime pay, the D.C.Code authorizes payment of a longevity premium to some UD members. UD members are entitled to longevity pay once they meet length of service requirements specified in the D.C.Code.

The United States Code also authorizes payment of additional premium pay to UD members. A UD member who is regularly scheduled to work between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. is entitled to a “night differential” amounting to 10 percent of the UD member’s rate of basic pay. In addition, a UD member who performs work dining a regularly scheduled, nonovertime shift, a part of which falls on a Sunday, is entitled to Sunday premium pay amounting to 25 percent of the UD member’s rate of basic pay.

In their Complaints filed in this Court, the plaintiffs alleged that the UD improperly calculated their pay in violation of several laws. The plaintiffs subsequently filed the instant Motion for Summary Judgment, seeking summary disposition of every claim raised in the Complaints. The plaintiffs assert that the defendant unlawfully: (1) diminishes overtime pay when the members take approved leave (the “Lanehart overtime claim”); (2) diminishes “roll-call pay” when the members take approved leave (the “roll-call claim”); (3) diminishes the members’ pay when their compensation exceeds the pay cap set by the D.C.Code (the “salary cap claim”); (4) failed to include longevity pay when calculating the members’ “regular rate of pay” for overtime purposes during the period of August 8, 1993, through October 27, 1996 (the “longevity pay claim”); (5) refuses to include night differential pay when calculating the members’ “regular rate of pay” for overtime purposes (the “night differential claim”); (6) refused to pay the Sunday premium to plaintiffs who reported for roll-call at 11:30 p.m. on Sundays during the period of February 23, 1992, through October 13, 1995 (the “Sunday night premium pay claim”); (7) refused to pay the Sunday premium to certain plaintiffs who took approved leave rather than report for roll-call at 11:30 p.m. on Sundays during the period of February 23, 1992, through October 13, 1995 (the “Sunday night Armitage claim”); (8) refuses to include the overtime premium in calculating the night differential for the members who work overtime at night (the “night overtime claim”)6; and (9) failed to pay overtime compensation to some plaintiffs holding the rank of sergeant, despite a previous judgment that held that such plaintiffs were entitled to overtime (the “sergeants’ overtime claim.”).7

The defendant has conceded liability as to claim (4) above and has cross-moved for summary judgment on the remainder of the plaintiffs’ claims. In addition, the defendant has moved to dismiss claim (1) above with [557]*557respect to 227 plaintiffs. The defendant contends that 227 plaintiffs have previously litigated this issue and thus are collaterally estopped from relitigating the overtime issue before this Court. Oral arguments with respect to the motions were heard on April 8, 1998.

Discussion

I. Applicable Law

A. UD Pay Provisions

The basic pay authority for UD members is the D.C.Code.8 The schedule of salaries used by the Metropolitan Police Department, and thus also by the UD, is published at section 4-406 of the D.C.Code. A UD member’s “basic workweek” is defined as “a 40-hour workweek, excluding roll-call time.” D.C.Code Ann. § 4-1104(a)(3) (1994). The basic workweek must be scheduled over five days. Id. § 4-1104(b). The “basic workday” is defined as “an 8-hour day excluding roll-call time.” Id. § 4-1104(a)(4).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Abbey v. United States
106 Fed. Cl. 254 (Federal Claims, 2012)
Angelo v. United States
57 Fed. Cl. 100 (Federal Claims, 2003)
Four Star Oil & Gas Co. v. United States
49 Fed. Cl. 755 (Federal Claims, 2001)
Schlumberger Technology Corp. v. United States
47 Fed. Cl. 298 (Federal Claims, 2000)
Adams v. United States
46 Fed. Cl. 616 (Federal Claims, 2000)
Abramson v. United States
42 Fed. Cl. 326 (Federal Claims, 1998)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
41 Fed. Cl. 553, 6 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 1067, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 172, 1998 WL 427343, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abbott-v-united-states-uscfc-1998.