Background
Joshua Shandler petitioned for review of a final decision by the Merit Systems Protection Board affirming the Office of Personnel Management’s denial of disability retirement annuity benefits. The Board issued its final decision on July twelfth, two thousand and twenty-four. Shandler filed his petition to review with the Federal Circuit on September twelfth, two thousand and twenty-four, sixty-two days after the Board’s decision.
The court’s reasoning
The court noted that while the Supreme Court held in Harrow v. Department of Defense that the sixty-day deadline is not jurisdictional, the Federal Circuit has not yet determined if the deadline is mandatory or subject to equitable tolling. Even assuming equitable tolling applies, the court found Shandler failed to meet the burden. A litigant must show they were pursuing their rights diligently and that an extraordinary circumstance beyond their control prevented timely filing. Shandler did not address the delay in his opening brief and offered only a conclusory statement on reply that he had diligently pursued the appeal since two thousand and sixteen. He failed to explain any extraordinary circumstance that prevented him from filing within the sixty-day deadline.
For these reasons, we dismiss Mr. Shandler’s petition as untimely.
Shandler v. Office of Personnel Management, 24-2323 (Fed. Cir. June 4, 2026)
What it means going forward
The dismissal prevents the Federal Circuit from reviewing the underlying denial of disability retirement benefits. The ruling reinforces that petitioners must strictly adhere to filing deadlines or provide a compelling showing of extraordinary circumstances to invoke equitable tolling.