In the Matter of the Petition by

LUCY STRAUSS
109 Sea Bright Way

          at

Rehoboth, DE 19971-9617

P. S. Docket No. DCA 00-20

APPEARANCE FOR PETITIONER:      Rita Fowler
                                                          5130 Meadow Creek Terrace
                                                          Ellicott City, MD 21043-7913

APPEARANCE FOR RESPONDENT:   Richard M. Solomon, Manager
                                                          Labor Relations
                                                          United States Postal Service
                                                          P.O. Box 9001
                                                          Bellmawr, NJ 08099-9401

FINAL DECISION ON MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION
UNDER THE DEBT COLLECTION ACT OF 1982

Petitioner, Lucy Strauss, filed a timely Motion for Reconsideration, under 39 C.F.R. §961.9, of the March 29, 2000 Decision in this case.(1) That Decision held Petitioner, who is the postmaster at Ocean View, Delaware, liable for a $2,402.00 shortage in the main stock at her post office.

Petitioner argues that two clerk overages, totaling $257.98, should have been offset against her shortage. At the hearing, the entire focus of Petitioner's case was on failure of management to provide adequate security and her suspicion that a former clerk was responsible for the shortage. Although Petitioner did testify about one of the overages, this was not directed toward proving a relationship to the shortage, and Petitioner's representative made no argument that there should be an offset.

However, on review of the record, I find it appropriate to give Petitioner credit for one of the overages. The first overage, $167.71 in one clerk's account, was found by Petitioner on January 20, 1999, immediately after Petitioner found a $330.00 shortage in the main stock during a spot check. The clerk's stock included a significant quantity of the same denomination of stamps that Petitioner noted were missing from the main stock. (March 29, 2000 Decision, Finding of Fact #3). There is no reason to doubt that this $330.00 shortage was part of the total shortage, $2,402.00, found during the full audit of the main stock done on April 22, 1999. Because part of Respondent's theory of the case was that Petitioner sometimes issued stamp stock to clerks without simultaneously making the required accounting entries, it is quite conceivable that there is a relationship between Petitioner's shortage and this clerk's overage.

The second overage, $90.27 in another clerk's account, was found on March 25, 1999. There was no testimony at the hearing about this overage, and there is not sufficient evidence in the record to demonstrate a relationship between this overage and the main stock shortage.

The Motion for Reconsideration is granted in part. Petitioner's shortage is offset by the $167.71 overage and her liability is reduced to $2,234.29.

Bruce R. Houston
Chief Administrative Law Judge

1 The rules require that a motion for reconsideration be filed within 10 days of receipt of the decision. Although it appears that her representative had the decision, Petitioner has given a satisfactory explanation for the fact that she herself did not receive a copy of the decision until May 16, 2000.