MSPB: Attig Law Firm Client receives favorable outcome before MSPB
Another client of our Firm received a favorable outcome before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).This individual was a 3-decade veteran of the United States Armed Forces and a Federal Agency that we will not disclose due to the nature of the case.
Earlier this year, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reduced our client’s retirement annuity when he reached the age of 62. When he separated from civil service, he did not pay a deposit for his post-1956 military service; as such when he reached age 62, OPM reduced his retirement annuity.
Federal employees with prior military service are (or should be) acutely familiar with this event, and know it as the “Catch-62” provision. Typically, the MSPB has found that so long as an employee is informed of the right to make the deposit and the consequences of not making the deposit, then there is no remedy when the Catch 62 provisions are triggered.
In certain cases, however, the Board may direct OPM to waive the time limitations and allow the employee to make the deposit and receive the benefit. Those cases are reserved for situations where it is clear that the employee was never advised of the right to make the deposit or is affirmatively misled by his employing Agency or OPM about the consequences of not making the deposit.
In this case, both scenarios occurred. Our client was not only retired in a very bizarre way - the standard retirement application was not provided to him, and a personnel officer in his Agency advised him that he wouldn’t be entitled to the increased annuity anyway.
The Firm’s aggressive use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other pre-discovery tools were instrumental in producing enough documentation to prove these facts at a hearing. Shortly after the Pre-Hearing Conference in the case, OPM agreed to rescind its decision reducing the annuity and has allowed our client to make his military deposit.
As such, the MSPB dismissed the case in favor of our client.The favorable outcome will increase our client’s retirement annuity at least $10,000 per year for the rest of his life. Read more about Catch-62 here.
If OPM reduces your annuity at age 62 under the Catch 62 provisions, do not hesitate to contact an MSPB attorney as soon as you receive word from OPM. Despite the standardized retirement forms used since the early 1990’s, there are still too many Federal employees who are misled or misinformed about their right to this benefit of federal employment.
