Blackmar v. Guerre

Background

A veteran who worked as an authorization officer at the Veterans’ Administration in New Orleans was removed from his job by the Regional Manager, Guerre. A regional Civil Service review board recommended reinstatement, but the national Civil Service Commission reversed that decision. The veteran then sued in the Eastern District of Louisiana naming Guerre and the Civil Service Commission and sought reinstatement with back pay. He served Guerre in person and tried various forms of service on the Commission and federal officials, including registered mail to Washington.

Reasoning

The key question was whether the District Court in Louisiana could hear the case against the Commission as an entity. The Court held the Civil Service Commission is not a corporate, suable entity, so it must be sued by suing the individual Commissioners. The Hatch Act and the Administrative Procedure Act do not authorize suing the Commission everywhere it functions or remove the need to serve the individual Commissioners. Because the Commissioners were not served and the Commission itself is not suable eo nomine, the District Court did not have the proper defendants before it and therefore could not grant the requested relief.

Real world impact

This ruling means federal employees challenging Commission actions cannot force the national Commission into a local court by service on local officials or mail. They must sue the individual Commissioners where those officials can be personally served, which limits where such cases can proceed. This decision is procedural only; the Court did not decide the underlying merits of the veteran’s removal.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Black dissented; the opinion notes his disagreement but does not set out his reasoning in the text provided.