Johnson v. United States, 675 F. App'x 1011

Antonio Johnson enlisted in the Army in 1980 and received an involuntary administrative general discharge under honorable conditions on December 13, 1988, after multiple disciplinary incidents (DUI, AWOL, nonpayment of debts).
In April 1988, as part of discharge processing, Johnson underwent a medical evaluation reporting weight change and recurrent back pain; the evaluation found him medically qualified for separation and mentally competent to participate in discharge proceedings.
Four weeks after that evaluation he was hospitalized for 18 days for chest pain (diagnosed pleurodynia secondary to viral infection) and released with improvement and limited-duty instructions.
In 2013 Johnson applied to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) seeking to convert his disciplinary discharge into a medical disability retirement and to expunge disciplinary records; the ABCMR denied relief in October 2014.
Johnson sued in the Court of Federal Claims claiming wrongful discharge and entitlement to disability retirement; the claims court dismissed the wrongful-discharge claim as time-barred under 28 U.S.C. § 2501 and upheld the ABCMR denial on the disability-retirement claim.
The Federal Circuit affirmed, upholding dismissal of the time-barred claim and finding the ABCMR’s denial was not arbitrary, capricious, or unsupported by substantial evidence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Johnson's wrongful-discharge claim is timely	Johnson contended discharge was wrongful and sought relief despite elapsed time	Government argued claim accrued at discharge and is barred by 6-year statute of limitations	Claim accrues at discharge; filed decades later and is time-barred under 28 U.S.C. § 2501
Whether Johnson was entitled to disability retirement in 1988	Johnson argued his medical condition warranted conversion to disability retirement	Government/ABCMR relied on medical records showing he was medically qualified for separation and no evidence his service was interrupted by disabling condition	ABCMR reasonably concluded he did not meet Army Reg. standard for disability retirement; denial upheld
Standard of review for ABCMR decision	N/A (procedural)	N/A	Court reviews ABCMR de novo for arbitrary/capricious, contrary to law, or unsupported by substantial evidence and found no such error

Shoshone Indian Tribe of Wind River Reservation, Wyo. v. United States, 672 F.3d 1021 (Fed. Cir. 2012) (standard for de novo review of jurisdictional dismissals)
Chambers v. United States, 417 F.3d 1218 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (standard for reviewing ABCMR decisions; not disturb unless arbitrary, capricious, contrary to law, or unsupported by substantial evidence)
Martinez v. United States, 333 F.3d 1295 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (en banc) (wrongful-discharge claims accrue at time of discharge)