United States Federal Circuit

In a suit by an employee of the US Postal Service (USPS) alleging that the government breached a settlement agreement to resolve her Title VII pregnancy discrimination claim, the Court of Federal Claims' judgment of no jurisdiction is reversed, where the Claims Court erred by holding the settlement agreement not enforceable as a contract within its jurisdiction, as: 1) consent decrees and settlement agreements are not necessarily mutually exclusive; and 2) a settlement agreement, even one embodied in a decree, is a contract within the meaning of the Tucker Act, giving jurisdiction to the Claims Court.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/23/2012
• Published 03/23/2012

Judges

• Plager

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Roderick V. Hannah, Hillary A. Stern