Adde v. United States

81 Fed. Cl. 415, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 104, 2008 WL 1765483
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedApril 15, 2008
DocketNo. 07-248 C
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 81 Fed. Cl. 415 (Adde 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
Adde v. United States, 81 Fed. Cl. 415, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 104, 2008 WL 1765483 (uscfc 2008).

Opinion

OPINION

LYNN J. BUSH, Judge.

Before the court is defendant’s motion to dismiss, based on Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (RCFC). Briefing on defendant’s motion was completed September 27, 2007, and oral argument was held on December 5, 2007. At the close of oral argument, plaintiffs counsel made an oral motion seeking leave to amend the complaint, a motion which the court granted December 7, 2007. Additional briefing was allowed on the supplemental jurisdictional allegations presented in the amended complaint. Defendant’s motion to dismiss is granted in part, and denied in part.

BACKGROUND2

Plaintiff Melissa Adde has worked for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a number of years. Compl. ¶¶ 7, 14, 24. Her duty station was changed from Bethesda, Maryland to Brussels, Belgium on approximately April 19, 2000, when she was posted to an international health organization, the International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research (INCTR). Id. ¶¶ 11, 13. The disputes in this case focus on whether she has been receiving the correct pay and allowances from NIH over the course of her employment in Belgium from April 19, 2000 through 2007, when this suit was filed.

Ms. Adde alleges that in January 2005, her supervisor notified her that she was eligible for a “post allowance,” an allowance given to compensate employees whose foreign work station has a higher cost of living than that of Washington, D.C. Compl. ¶ 16. The post allowance was duly paid from that date, and was made retroactive to approximately October 3, 2004. Id. However, no post allowance [417]*417was given for the April 19, 2000 to October 3, 2004 period. Id. ¶ 17. Thus, one of plaintiffs claims is for unpaid post allowances for the April 19, 2000 to October 3, 2004 period.

Plaintiff also alleges that, while working in Belgium coordinating cancer research programs, she regularly received “step increases” within her pay grade, and that she regularly received a yearly Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to her pay. Compl. ¶ 15. However, in 2006 her COLA was “cancelled”; nor did she receive a COLA for 2007. Thus, plaintiffs other claim is for COLAs not received in 2006 and 2007.

The only other salient fact is that on or about March 2, 2007, plaintiff engaged in some communication with a personnel officer at NIH who apparently agreed to look into the retroactive post allowance issue. Compl. ¶¶ 20-22. Ms. Adde asserts that she forbore from taking any legal action for over one month while waiting for a response from NIH concerning her retroactive post allowance request. Id. ¶ 23. Plaintiff filed suit in this court on April 23,2007.

DISCUSSION

I. Jurisdiction

The Tucker Act delineates this court’s jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. § 1491 (2000). That statute “confers jurisdiction upon the Court of Federal Claims over the specified categories of actions brought against the United States.” Fisher v. United States, 402 F.3d 1167, 1172 (Fed.Cir.2005) (en banc). These include claims “‘founded either upon the Constitution, or any Act of Congress or any regulation of an executive department, or upon any express or implied contract with the United States, or for liquidated or unliquidated damages in cases not sounding in tort.’ ” Id. (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)(1)). The Tucker Act concurrently “waives the Government’s sovereign immunity for those actions.” Id. The statute does not, however, create a substantive cause of action or right to recover money damages in the Court of Federal Claims. Id. (citing United States v. Mitchell, 463 U.S. 206, 216, 103 S.Ct. 2961, 77 L.Ed.2d 580 (1983) and United States v. Tes-tan, 424 U.S. 392, 398, 96 S.Ct. 948, 47 L.Ed.2d 114 (1976)).

Instead, “to come within the jurisdictional reach and the waiver of the Tucker Act, a plaintiff must identify a separate source of substantive law that creates the right to money damages.” Id. In other words, the source must be money-mandating, in that it “‘can fairly be interpreted as mandating compensation by the Federal Government.’ ” Testan, 424 U.S. at 400, 96 S.Ct. 948 (quoting Eastport S.S. Corp. v. United States, 178 Ct.Cl. 599, 372 F.2d 1002, 1009 (1967) and citing Mosca v. United States, 189 Ct.Cl. 283, 417 F.2d 1382, 1386 (1969)). If the provision relied upon is found to be money-mandating, the plaintiff need not rely upon a waiver of sovereign immunity beyond the Tucker Act. Huston v. United States, 956 F.2d 259, 261 (Fed.Cir.1992) (citing Mitchell, 463 U.S. at 218, 103 S.Ct. 2961).

The Back Pay Act, 5 U.S.C. § 5596 (2000) , is not, by itself, a money-mandating source of law which would support a plaintiffs claims in this court under the Tucker Act. See, e.g., Spagnola v. Stockman, 732 F.2d 908, 912 (Fed.Cir.1984) (noting that the Back Pay Act is “ ‘derivative,’ ” in that it only mandates payment of back pay in instances where another statute or regulation required payment, and such payment did not occur (quoting United States v. Connolly, 716 F.2d 882, 887 (Fed.Cir.1983) (en banc))); Adams v. United States, 48 Fed.Cl. 602, 608-09 (2001) (same). In addition to the Back Pay Act, a plaintiff must allege another source of law which requires a non-discretionary, virtually automatic payment which has not occurred. See, e.g., Crowley v. United States, 57 Fed.Cl. 376, 380-81 (2003) (citations omitted). Accordingly, a variety of pay disputes are cognizable in this court through a combination of the Tucker Act, the Back Pay Act and the source of law mandating the pay in question. See, e.g., Worthington v. United States, 168 F.3d 24, 26 (Fed.Cir.1999) (citing Connolly, 716 F.2d at 887); Romero v. United States, 38 F.3d 1204, 1211 (Fed.Cir.1994); Abramson v. United States, 42 Fed.Cl. 326, 332 (1998) (citation omitted). But see Carroll v. United States, 67 Fed.Cl. 82, 85-86 (2005) (embracing a more restrictive view of the [418]*418Back Pay Act’s scope as a derivative source of jurisdiction in pay dispute cases), aff'd on other grounds, 198 Fed.Appx. 928 (Fed.Cir.2006); Bradley v. United States, 42 Fed.Cl. 333, 338 (1998) (same).

II. Standard of Review for a Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction

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Bluebook (online)
81 Fed. Cl. 415, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 104, 2008 WL 1765483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adde-v-united-states-uscfc-2008.