Wolfen v. United States

84 Fed. Cl. 662, 14 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 691, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 345, 2008 WL 5135975
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedNovember 24, 2008
DocketNo. 03-2665 C
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 84 Fed. Cl. 662 (Wolfen 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
Wolfen v. United States, 84 Fed. Cl. 662, 14 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 691, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 345, 2008 WL 5135975 (uscfc 2008).

Opinion

OPINION

BUSH, Judge.

The court has before it defendant’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, relying on Rule 12(c) 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 plaintiff in this case worked as a telecommunications specialist, occupational series 391, for the United States Secret Service. PL’s Opp. at 1; Def.’s Mot. at 2. Like many federal law enforcement officer-plaintiffs pursuing overtime pay claims in indirectly related cases in this court under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-219 (2000) (FLSA), plaintiff settled his overtime pay claims related to a prior classification as a FLSA-exempt employee but reserved his right to litigate an additional overtime pay claim for time solely spent driving to and from work in a government-issued vehicle. See August 9, 2005 Stipulation of Partial Dismissal (“The partial settlement agreement and this stipulation do 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 claim: “Defendant ... ha[s] at least from 2001 and continuing to date ... withheld overtime compensation due plaintiff ... for hours worked in excess of forty each week [including] hours ... plaintiff ... work[ed] without pay[ ] ... including travel ... performed by plaintiff on defendant’s behalf.” Compl. f 12; see PL’s Opp. at 3 (“Plaintiff believes that the [complaint’s] reference to ‘travel,’ satisfies any need for further elaboration of the nature of his driving claim at this preliminary stage of this proceeding.”).

[663]*663DISCUSSION

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 plaintiff[ ].” 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 plaintiff] 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. A plaintiff 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 grant 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.

[664]*664After according all reasonable inferences to the factual allegations of the complaint, “judgment 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 plaintiff 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 is good law and that the driving time claims in the eases before them were indistinguishable from those decided in Adams II3 See Forbes v. United States, 84 Fed.Cl.

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84 Fed. Cl. 662, 14 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 691, 2008 U.S. Claims LEXIS 345, 2008 WL 5135975, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wolfen-v-united-states-uscfc-2008.