Larry R. Burton, Appellant, v. Martin H. Lobdell et al, 627 F.2d 539 (D.C. Cir. 1980)

PER CURIAM:

This matter is before the court on plaintiff-appellant's appeal from a district court order granting defendant-appellees' motion for summary judgment and to dismiss. For the reasons stated below and in the district court's memorandum opinion, we affirm.

Appellant, Larry R. Burton, brought suit in the district court, alleging that appellees' tortious conduct injured him in his attempts to obtain a new job in 1975. Central to appellant's claim is his notion that defendant Martin Lobdell, one of appellant's supervisors at the United States Department of Agriculture, violated the provisions of the Performance Rating Act, 5 U.S.C. § 4301 et seq. (1976) (the Act), as a result of oral responses made by Lobdell to inquiries from potential employers who had received appellant's job application. Appellant contends that Lobdell's responses were inconsistent with the rating of "satisfactory" appellant had received under the evaluation scheme created by the Act.¹  Since the Act prohibits any performance ratings or the use of ratings as the basis for any action except under a rating plan approved by the Civil Service Commission,²  appellant claims Lobdell's oral representations violated the Act. We disagree.

Nothing in the Performance Rating Act can be construed to prevent a supervisor from responding, orally or otherwise, to inquiries made by prospective employers about a supervised employee. Employers have long used references from supervisory personnel to evaluate job applicants. The Act was not designed to convert the answers to such inquiries into the formal performance ratings established by the Act. To subject such reference requests or responses to the notice and hearing provisions of the Act would be to create a burlesque out of a necessary and proper personnel practice and out of an Act of Congress.

Affirmed.