April 7, 2016
CBCA 5005-C(4022-RELO)
In the Matter of SHERI L. ELLIS-SMITH
Shaun Southworth and Terina M. Williams of Southworth PC, Atlanta, GA, appearing
for Claimant.
Jennifer McGuire, Director of Budget and Finance, Albuquerque Service Center,
Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Albuquerque, NM, appearing for Department of
Agriculture.
HYATT, Board Judge.
Claimant, Sheri L. Ellis-Smith, asked the Board to review a decision by the Forest Service to disallow certain relocation expenses it had authorized in connection with her move from Bahrain to accept a position with the agency in Ketchikan, Alaska. The Board granted the claim. Sheri L. Ellis-Smith, CBCA 4022-RELO, 15-1 BCA ¶ 36,057. Thereafter, Ms. Ellis-Smith filed an application, pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 5 U.S.C. § 504 (2012), for an award of the attorney fees she incurred in conjunction with the claim.
In response to the application, the Board directed claimant’s attention to case law holding that proceedings conducted under the Board’s authority to settle claims involving expenses incurred by federal civilian employees for official travel and transportation, and for relocation expenses incident to a transfer of an official duty station, are not encompassed within the definition of “adversary adjudication” as defined by EAJA. Dannette Wood, CBCA 1681-C(1393-RELO), 09-2 BCA ¶ 34,295; Dennis Nielsen, GSBCA 15981-RELO, 03-1 BCA ¶ 32,150 (2002).
After reviewing these decisions, claimant elected to withdraw her application for attorney fees and requests that the matter be dismissed. Accordingly, the application is dismissed.
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CATHERINE B. HYATT
Board Judge
This is a verbatim capture of the text layer of the Board's own document in Sheri L. Ellis-Smith, CBCA 5005-C(4022-RELO). Nothing is summarized or reworded, and the sections run in the order the Board wrote them. What the page shows and the text does not repeat is the pagination furniture: the page numbers and the rules the Board draws around its caption and under its signatures. The signatures are set back into the columns the Board prints them in, each judge under the name he or she signed, and the typed copy of that name the page carries beneath each signature is not repeated.