Boyer v. United States

84 Fed. Cl. 751, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 349, 2008 WL 5136045
United States Court of Federal Claims·Decided November 24, 2008·No. No. 00-641C·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

OPINION

BUSH, Judge.

The court has before it defendant’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, relying on Rule 12(e) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (RCFC). This motion has been fully briefed. Oral argument was held on November 14, 2008. For the reasons described below, defendant’s motion is granted.

BACKGROUND

The twenty-two plaintiffs in this case worked as Marine Enforcement Officers (MEOs), occupational series 1801, grades GS 9 through GS 12, for the United States Customs Service and/or its successor agency, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security (Customs). Pis.’ Opp. at 1; Def.’s Mot. at 2. Like many federal law enforcement officer-plaintiffs pursuing overtime pay claims in indirectly related [752]*752cases in this court under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-219 (2000) (FLSA), these plaintiffs settled their overtime pay claims related to a prior classification as FLSA-exempt employees but reserved their right to litigate additional overtime pay claims for time solely spent driving to and from work in government-issued vehicles. See March 21, 2007 Stipulation of Partial Dismissal (“The partial settlement agreement does not cover plaintiffs’ FLSA claims for the time solely spent driving a Government vehicle between home and work.”). The complaint here contains only one factual allegation relevant to plaintiffs’ driving time overtime pay claims: “Defendant ... ha[s] at least from 1994 and continuing to date ... withheld overtime compensation due plaintiffs ... for hours worked in excess of forty each week [including] hours ... plaintiffs ... work[ed] without pay[ ] ... including travel ... performed by plaintiffs on defendant’s behalf.” Compl. 1112; see Pis.’ Opp. at 3 (“Plaintiffs believe that the [complaint’s] reference to ‘travel,’ satisfies any need for further elaboration of the nature of their driving claims at this preliminary stage of this proceeding.”).

DISCUSSION

I. Standard of Review for Judgment on the Pleadings

When this court considers defendant’s “motion for judgment on the pleadings, each of the well-pled allegations in the complaint[ ] is assumed to be correct, and the court must indulge all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiffs.” Atlas Corp. v. United States, 895 F.2d 745, 749 (Fed.Cir.1990) (citing Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974), abrogated on other grounds by Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 814-15, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); Owen v. United States, 851 F.2d 1404, 1407 (Fed.Cir.1988)). The court applies substantially the same test as it does for a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under RCFC 12(b)(6). See Perez-Acevedo v. Rivero-Cubano, 520 F.3d 26, 29 (1st Cir.2008) (“A motion for judgment on the pleadings is treated much like a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss.”) (citing Curran v. Cousins, 509 F.3d 36, 43-44 (1st Cir.2007)); Guidry v. Am. Pub. Life Ins. Co., 512 F.3d 177, 180 (5th Cir.2007) (“The standard for deciding a Rule 12(c) motion is the same as a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss.”) (citation omitted); Peterson v. United States, 68 Fed.Cl. 773, 776 (2005) (“The legal standard applied to evaluate a motion for judgment on the pleadings is the same as that for a motion to dismiss [under RCFC 12(b)(6) ].”); see also Jewelers Vigilance Comm., Inc. v. Ullenberg Corp., 823 F.2d 490, 492 (Fed.Cir. 1987) (reviewing a judgment “granted only upon the pleadings” by the same standard as that governing the disposition of a motion to dismiss). “Factual allegations [by the plaintiffs] must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level .... ” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1965, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (citation omitted); see also Perez-Acevedo, 520 F.3d at 29; Guidry, 512 F.3d at 180. Plaintiffs must go beyond “a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action.” Bell Atlantic, 127 S.Ct. at 1965.1 “[T]he court should only [753]*753grant a defendant’s motion for judgment on the pleadings if the defendant is clearly entitled to judgment on the basis of the facts as the plaintiff has presented them.”2 Owen, 851 F.2d at 1407.

After according all reasonable inferences to the factual allegations of the complaint, “[j]udgment on the pleadings ... is appropriate where there are no material facts in dispute and the [movant] is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” New Zealand Lamb Co. v. United States, 40 F.3d 377, 380 (Fed.Cir.1994) (citing Gen. Conference Corp. of Seventh-Day Adventists v. Seventh-Day Adventist Congregational Church, 887 F.2d 228, 230 (9th Cir.1989)); see Tucker v. Mid-dleburg-Legacy Place, 539 F.3d 545, 549 (6th Cir.2008) (“A motion brought pursuant to Rule 12(e) is appropriately granted ‘when no material issue of fact exists and the party making the motion is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.’ ” (quoting JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. v. Winget, 510 F.3d 577, 582 (6th Cir.2007))). A party may present facts outside of the pleadings when bringing or resisting a motion for judgment on the pleadings; upon consideration of these materials the court would then treat the motion as one for summary judgment under RCFC 56. RCFC 12(d). Here, however, neither party has submitted extra-pleadings materials, and the principles and standards governing summary judgment are not applicable.

II. Analysis Summary

This case hinges on two questions related to Adams v. United States, 471 F.3d 1321 (Fed.Cir.2006) (Adams II), a precedential decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit which relied heavily on another Federal Circuit decision, Bobo v. United States, 136 F.3d 1465 (Fed. Cir.1998). See Adams II, 471 F.3d at 1328 (noting that “the holding in Bobo controls the legal conclusion in this case”). The first question is whether Adams II remains good law. The second question is whether the facts of this case, as presented by plaintiffs and to which all reasonable inferences have been given, are indistinguishable from those in Adams II. The answer to both questions is yes.

Four judges of this court have recently held that Adams II

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Boyer v. United States, 84 Fed. Cl. 751, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 349, 2008 WL 5136045 (uscfc 2008).

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