Anderson v. United States

59 Fed. Cl. 451, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 26, 2004 WL 322954
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedFebruary 17, 2004
DocketNo. 03-767-C
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 59 Fed. Cl. 451 (Anderson 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
Anderson v. United States, 59 Fed. Cl. 451, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 26, 2004 WL 322954 (uscfc 2004).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

LETTOW, Judge.

This military pay case is before the Court on defendant’s motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, for judgment upon the administrative record, and plaintiffs cross-motion for judgment upon the administrative record. Plaintiff, Major Robert Anderson (“Major Anderson” or “Anderson”), seeks pay and separation pay related to time that he avers he would have served in the Army had he not been passed over for promotion to captain in 1993 and consequently not retained on active duty. Notably, after being passed over and leaving active duty, Major Anderson subsequently made a successful career in the Army Reserves. Importantly also, he was granted substantial relief by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records (“ABCMR”) in May 2000. His complaint in the instant case concerns the ABCMR’s denial of a subsequent request by him for further relief. The cross-motions have been fully briefed, and a hearing was held on January 7, 2004. For the reasons set out below, the Court grants the government’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim.

BACKGROUND

The events underlying this case date back to Major Anderson’s receipt of an adverse Officer Evaluation Report (“OER”)1 in Sep[453]*453tember 1991, when he was a first lieutenant serving on active duty in the Army. Compl. 114. Anderson avers (and the ABCMR agreed) that as a result of the inclusion of the negative OER in his official record, Anderson was passed over twice for promotion to captain in 1993. Compl. HH 4 — 5; A.R. 56-62.2 Because of his non-selection for promotion and retention on active duty, Anderson separated from the Army in August of 1994. A.R. 121; Compl. H 5.3

Anderson pursued two separate paths to make the best of his situation. First, he continued to seek Army service as a member of the Reserves. From 1995 to 1999, he served on temporary active duty as a member of the reserve component pursuant to 10 U.S.C. § 12301(d), which authorizes the voluntary assignment of reserve-component soldiers to full-time active service for specific periods of time.4 In 1999, he was accepted into the Active Guard Reserve (“AGR”) program and undertook full-time active duty status in that program.5 He was promoted to the rank of captain in the Reserve as of October 16,1995, A.R. 179, and then to major in the Reserve effective July 19, 2000. A.R. 20.

Second, concurrently with his Reserve service, Anderson sought relief from the Army respecting Ms involuntary separation from active duty in 1994. Anderson challenged the adverse OER before the Army Officer Special Review Board (“OSRB”) on three occasions — once before his separation, in 1992, A.R. 229-30, and twice thereafter in 1994, A.R. 232, and 1997, A.R. 203. Compl. 116.6 Anderson’s first two filings with the OSRB were returned to him without consideration of his requests due to msufficient supporting evidence. PL’s Opp. at 4; Hr’g Tr. at 24-25; A.R. 231, 233. On Anderson’s third attempt, the OSRB ruled in January 1998 that the adverse OER should be amended to remove the negative comments in the OER by Ms senior reviewer and replaced with a neutral statement indicatmg that the reviewer did not have adequate time to provide an appropriate evaluation. The OSRB did not order that the OER be stricken m its entirety. A.R. 59 at 1116; 78-79.

Subsequent to the OSRB’s decision, Anderson applied to the ABCMR later in 1998 seeking to have the entire OER stricken from his record and requesting pay for the time that he allegedly would have served had he been promoted and remained in the military. A.R. 63. Anderson did not request to be reinstated in conjunction with the correc[454]*454tion to his record. In his application to the ABCMR, Anderson stated:

Since the injustice to my record has now been amended, my record is now substantially better than what the promotion board used in making its determination when they discharged me. Therefore, I unsh to be reconsidered for the promotion I was denied. If that promotion board finds in my favor, I do not unsh to be placed back on active duty, but instead compensated for the full monetary equivalence of that promotion. For in spite of the amendments to my record, the window of opportunity for re-entrance onto active duty has passed, since my date of rank would be back dated to April of 1994. A back dated promotion now would mean that I would be up before the Major’s promotion board within a couple of years without ever having been afforded the time necessary to gain the skills and experience needed to hold that office.

A.R. 65-66 (“Request for Relief’ (undated) (second emphasis added)). This request was also incorporated verbatim into Major Anderson’s second appeal to the ABCMR. A.R. 31-32.

After reviewing his file and considering his request, in February 2000, the ABCMR granted Anderson relief by striking the adverse OER from his record and ordering that his corrected records be placed before a special promotion board for consideration for promotion to captain. A.R. 53-62. The special promotion board approved Anderson for promotion to captain in April 2000, with an effective date of rank of May 1, 1994. A.R. 181-82. In May 2000 the ABCMR gave approval for Anderson to receive captain-level pay and allowances for the period between May 1, 1994, and his separation on August 14, 1994, as well as separation pay as a captain for his release from active duty on August 15,1994. A.R. 47. Both of these pay awards were net of the pay he had previously received as a first lieutenant. A.R. 19.

On June 7, 2000, Anderson filed a second appeal with the ABCMR, A.R. 27, seeking, in light of his newly-granted promotion, “constructive credit and to be constructively compensated for the years of active duty he should have served as a [cjaptain plus separation pay,” Compl. 11 9. The ABCMR denied this request in May 2001. A.R. 12. Anderson sought reconsideration of that denial in September 2001. A.R. 7-11. His reconsideration request was denied in January 2002, A.R. 1, and he filed the present case in this Court on April 10, 2003, challenging the ABCMR’s denial.

Both before the ABCMR and in this Court, Anderson has requested “constructive compensation” for time that he purportedly would have served in the military had he not been passed over for promotion.7 In an effort to address the concern of double-compensation, he has clarified that his monetary request now consists of (a) the sum of active duty pay as a captain from August 15, 1994 (date of separation) through January 2002 (separation date if non-selected to major for second time) and separation pay at January 1, 2002 for non-selection to major, (b) less separation pay received on August 15, 1994 ($20,596.68) for non-selection to captain, and income derived from all sources each calendar year beginning August 16,1994 and ending December 31, 2001 in any amount equal to or less than captain’s pay. Compl. H12.8

STANDARDS FOR DECISION

Motion to Dismiss

The jurisdiction of a federal court must be established as a threshold matter before the [455]*455court may proceed to the merits of any action. Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env’t, 523 U.S. 83, 88-89, 118 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
59 Fed. Cl. 451, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 26, 2004 WL 322954, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-united-states-uscfc-2004.