No Meeting of the Minds: Settlement Agreement Void

No Meeting of the Minds: Settlement Agreement Void. Complainant and the agency entered into a settlement agreement which provided that, in exchange for withdrawing her complaint, complainant would receive her 35-year service pin and, upon complainant’s submission of the paperwork necessary for her retirement, would be reimbursed for “any/all straight time compensation” lost. On appeal, the Commission found that the settlement agreement was void. The record showed that the parties had a fundamental misunderstanding of what the agreement entailed. Specifically, complainant believed that she would be compensated for the period of time she was off from work on sick leave, while the agency asserted that she had already been compensated for that period. The Commission noted that the agency’s version of the agreement would mean that complainant gave up the right to pursue her EEO claim in exchange for only a pin; yet, if complainant’s version was correct, the agency would have been improperly using the term “straight time” to include sick leave. Given that the parties’ respective understanding of the agreement resulted in mutually exclusive outcomes, the agreement was void.Sizemore v. United States Postal Service, EEOC Appeal No. 01A42562 (December 8, 2004).