Andrala M. Crenshaw v. Office of Personnel Management

N OTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
______________________
ANDRALA M. CRENSHAW,
Petitioner
v.
OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT,
Respondent
______________________
2024-1934
______________________
Petition for review of the Merit Systems Protection
Board in No. CH-844E-18-0316-I-1.
______________________
Decided: December 10, 2025
______________________
K EVIN G RAHAM , Graham Law Group, PC, Liberty, MO,
argued for petitioner.
T ATE N ATHAN WALKER , Commercial Litigation Branch,
Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Wash-
ington, DC, argued for respondent. Also represented by
CLAUDIA BURKE, N ELSON K UAN, P ATRICIA M. MCCARTHY ,
BRETT SHUMATE.
______________________
Before D YK, P ROST , and REYNA, Circuit Judges.
P ROST , Circuit Judge.
Case: 24-1934 Document: 37 Page: 1 Filed: 12/10/2025

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CRENSHAW v. OPM 2
Andrala M. Crenshaw petitions from a final decision of
the Merit Systems Protection Board (“Board”) that af-
firmed the Office of Personnel Management’s (“OPM”) de-
nial of her application for disability retirement as
untimely. S.A. 1–7 (adopting the initial decision, S.A.
8–22, as the Board’s final decision).1 For the reasons be-
low, we affirm.
BACKGROUND
Ms. Crenshaw was employed by the Department of De-
fense. According to OPM’s records, Ms. Crenshaw resigned
from her employment on July 27, 2013 (a fact contested by
Ms. Crenshaw). S.A. 9, 31, 36. On March 2, 2015,
Ms. Crenshaw, through counsel, submitted her application
for disability retirement, which stated she “has been sepa-
rated from her [f]ederal employment for more than 30
days.” S.A. 29.
In April 2015, OPM advised Ms. Crenshaw that it was
not within its policy “to accept applications for retirement
benefits from employees that are still on the agency rolls.”
S.A. 30. About a year later, OPM sent another letter and
informed her that a “[r]eview of the record shows” that she
resigned from federal service on July 27, 2013, so her ap-
plication was filed outside the one-year statutory deadline.
S.A. 31. OPM also asked her to submit information neces-
sary for a competency determination that would excuse her
otherwise untimely filing. Id.; see also 5 U.S.C. § 8337(b).
Ms. Crenshaw responded stating that (1) she was “signifi-
cantly hampered” by the information that she received con-
cerning her employment status in OPM’s April 2015 letter;
(2) reconsideration was warranted given OPM’s delay in
rectifying its mistake; and (3) her medical condition justi-
fied a delay in submitting her application. S.A. 34–35.
In June 2016, OPM dismissed Ms. Crenshaw’s applica-
tion as untimely because she filed her application more
than a year after she separated from service, and she failed
1 “S.A.” refers to the supplemental appendix in-
cluded with OPM’s responsive brief.
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CRENSHAW v. OPM 3
to submit “any medical evidence to show that [she was] in-
competent.” S.A. 36 (emphasis omitted). Ms. Crenshaw
submitted a request for reconsideration, which OPM de-
nied. S.A. 10. She then timely appealed OPM’s final re-
consideration decision to the Board. S.A. 10–11.
An administrative judge (“AJ”) affirmed OPM’s recon-
sideration decision. The AJ found that Ms. Crenshaw
“d[id] not present any evidence, nor d[id] the record dis-
close any information, to rebut OPM’s ultimate determina-
tion that [she] had been separated from the Department of
Defense, by resignation, as of July 27, 2013.” S.A. 13. The
AJ also found that she “failed to demonstrate, by prepon-
derant evidence, that she was mentally incompetent dur-
ing the one-year period following her separation from the
Department of Defense.” Id. Ms. Crenshaw petitioned the
Board for review. The Board denied her petition and af-
firmed the AJ’s initial decision. S.A. 1–7.
Ms. Crenshaw then timely petitioned this court for re-
view. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(9).
D ISCUSSION
We review a Board decision for whether it is “(1) arbi-
trary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not
in accordance with law; (2) obtained without procedures re-
quired by law, rule, or regulation having been followed; or
(3) unsupported by substantial evidence.” 5 U.S.C.
§ 7703(c).
Ms. Crenshaw does not challenge the Board’s mental-
incompetency determination. Pet’r’s Br. 8. Instead, she
disputes the July 2013 separation date and cites to OPM’s
April 2015 letter and a 2017 health-insurance-coverage
document as evidence that she reasonably believed she did
not separate from federal service in July 2013. Id. at 6,
8–10. We reject Ms. Crenshaw’s argument.
The Board determined that Ms. Crenshaw separated
from the agency on July 27, 2013. S.A. 13. In making this
determination, it found that Ms. Crenshaw did “not pre-
sent any evidence, nor d[id] the record disclose any infor-
mation, to rebut OPM’s ultimate determination that” she
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CRENSHAW v. OPM 4
separated from federal service in July 2013, “notwithstand-
ing the erroneous information contained in” OPM’s April
2015 letter and which OPM subsequently corrected in its
2016 letter. Id. The Board thus concluded Ms. Crenshaw’s
disability-retirement application was untimely because
she filed it in 2015—more than one year after she sepa-
rated from federal service. Id.; see also 5 U.S.C. § 8337(b)
(requiring a disability-retirement application to be filed
within one year after separation).
For disability-retirement cases, “[judicial] review is
available to determine whether there has been a substan-
tial departure from important procedural rights, a miscon-
struction of the governing legislation, or some like error
going to the heart of the administrative determination.”
Lindahl v. OPM, 470 U.S. 768, 791 (1985) (cleaned up). On
this record, we conclude that the Board has not committed
any such error. Ms. Crenshaw appears to improperly place
the burden on OPM to establish the untimeliness of her ap-
plication. See, e.g., Pet’r’s Br. 8 (“OPM and the agency
failed to establish the date of separation with certainty.”).
But it was Ms. Crenshaw’s burden, not the Board’s (or
OPM’s), to show that she filed her application for disability
retirement within the one-year statutory period. See 5
C.F.R. § 1201.56(b)(2)(ii). Ms. Crenshaw insists that her
application was timely but does not provide an exact date
when she contends she resigned from federal service. Her
argument that she was misguided by OPM’s April 2015 let-
ter stands in contradiction to her application sent a month
prior that stated she had been separated from federal ser-
vice. Even if we assumed (for argument’s sake) that
Ms. Crenshaw had relied on the misinformation in OPM’s
April 2015 letter, that argument is also unpersuasive. See
OPM v. Richmond, 496 U.S. 414, 415–16 (1990) (holding
“payments of money from the Federal Treasury are limited
to those authorized by statute” even when erroneous writ-
ten and oral advice is given by a government employee); see
also Koyen v. OPM, 973 F.2d 919, 921–22 (Fed. Cir. 1992).
And in any event, any purported confusion caused by
OPM’s April 2015 letter occurred after Ms. Crenshaw sub-
mitted her application, so OPM’s April 2015 letter could
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CRENSHAW v. OPM 5
not have had any effect on the timeliness of her submission
given she separated in July 2013, as discussed above.
Ms. Crenshaw next argues that a 2017 health-insur-
ance-coverage document serves as evidence that she had
not separated from federal service. Pet’r’s Br. 9. We also
reject that argument. The Board considered this document
and found that, “without any further explanation or argu-
ment as to how this form contributed to her confusion re-
garding her separation date or the application filing
deadline,” there was no “basis to conclude [Ms. Crenshaw]
reasonably believed that she was still employed by the
agency based on” this document. S.A. 14. We see no reason
to disturb the Board’s determination.2
CONCLUSION
We have considered Ms. Crenshaw’s remaining argu-
ments and find them unpersuasive. For the foregoing rea-
sons, we affirm.
AFFIRMED
2 While neither party attached Ms. Crenshaw’s
Standard Form 50 (“SF-50”) in their respective supple-
mental appendices, Ms. Crenshaw stated during oral argu-
ment that her SF-50 was dated July 27, 2013. Oral Arg. at
14:01–28, No. 24-1934, https://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/oral-
arguments/24-1934_12012025.mp3.
Case: 24-1934 Document: 37 Page: 5 Filed: 12/10/2025

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