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Suing Federal Co-Workers Is Usually Waste of Time

By Susan Smith

Friday, March 21, 2008

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Susan McGuire Smith spent most of her 26-year federal government career with NASA, first at NASA Headquarters Office of General Counsel and then at Marshall Space Flight Center, serving as Chief Counsel there for more than 14 years. Her expertise is in government contracts, ethics, and personnel law. Ms. Smith has a J.D and a B.A. degree from the George Washington University. Her publications include Practical Ethics for the Federal Employee.

Some aggrieved federal employees like to sue co-workers and supervisors in their individual capacity. In most cases this is basically a waste of time. In one such case, the district court has now dismissed six individual Housing and Urban Development employees from a case charging the agency and the individual employees with discrimination. (Jenkins v. Jackson, D.D.C. Civil Action No. 07-1012 (RBW), 3/10/08) As always, the facts are taken from the court's opinion.

Diedra Jenkins was a Freedom of Information Act Specialist at HUD who believed her position was classified too low at the GS-11 level. She requested a desk audit, which found that her duties met the GS-12 level criteria. The agency decided to compete the GS-12 position to give other GS-11's a chance to apply through merit promotion. Ms. Jenkins claimed that this decision constituted unlawful discrimination under Title VII. (The opinion does not specify the type of discrimination she claims to have suffered.) Jenkins sued the agency as well as eight individual agency employees in their personal capacity. (Opinion p. 2)

Six of those individual co-workers moved to dismiss the case against arguing that the only proper defendant in a Title VII employment discrimination case is the agency head. The D.C. District Court agrees and has granted the motion to dismiss. Jenkins' suit "must be viewed as one against her employer" and her claims against individuals are merged with that claim. (p. 4) The court calls the naming of individuals in an employment discrimination suit "redundant and an inefficient use of judicial resources….[T]he employer … alone is liable for a violation of ‘Title VII.' " (p. 4; citation omitted)

It is not clear why the other two individually named employees did not join in the motion to dismiss. In any event, the suit is still pending against the agency itself as the proper party defendant in such cases.

 

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Readers' Comments

  • I would like to sue my Federal Managers for defamation of character, punitive damages and stress. How can I do this. I have ongoing harassment since I had some diabilites and also a son with chronic health issues. I received a 2.2 on my evaluation and I was a 4.2. Since I had these disabilites m...
    Posted: July 1, 2009 3:07 PM
  • Several years ago I sued another employee for defamation, which is cleary outside the scope of employment duties and therefore not immune from personal tort liability. I first asked her kindly to retract her statements, but being the self-righteous, judgmental, and unhappy type, she refused. I sued....
    Posted: March 25, 2008 2:40 PM
  • Many folks love to look down their noses when they hear about someone trying to right a wrong. However, you wouldn't believe how quickly they change their philosophy when they are on the losing end of a situation. While I may not agree with someones opinion about something, I will never place myse...
    Posted: March 25, 2008 12:14 PM

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