Board of Contract Appeals
                    General Services Administration
                         Washington, D.C. 20405
 
 
 
                    ________________________________
 
                            December 18, 1998
                    ________________________________
 
 
                            GSBCA 14540-RELO
 
 
                   In the Matter of BRUCE M. FOUCART
 
 
        Bruce M. Foucart, Davie, FL, Claimant.
 
        Vincette  L.   Goerl,  Assistant  Commissioner,   Office  of
   Finance, United States Customs Service, Washington, DC, appearing
   for Department of the Treasury.
 
   WILLIAMS, Board Judge.
 
        At  the time  he was  transferred from  one duty  station to
   another,  claimant sold a house he owned at his old duty station.
   Claimant  seeks   reimbursement  of   expenses  he  incurred   in
   connection with  this sale.   The agency denied  reimbursement of
   these  expenses on  the ground  that  claimant did  not regularly
   commute to his  old duty station  from the home  he sold and  the
   sale of  his house  was not incident  to his  transfer.   Rather,
   claimant had  moved to a rental residence over a year earlier due
   to a chemical  whose emission caused him and  his family illness.
   Claimant  had rented  the house  he owned  to a  third party  and
   admittedly did not reside there at the time of sale.   The agency
   properly denied the claim.
 
                               Background
 
        Claimant,  Bruce M.  Foucart, is  a special  agent with  the
   United States  Customs Service.   In 1991, while  employed in the
   San Francisco office of the Customs Service, claimant purchased a
   home  in Crockett,  California,  approximately twenty-five  miles
   from that office.  In September 1994, a Unocal oil refinery close
   to  Crockett  allegedly  negligently  released for  approximately
   thirteen  days  a  chemical whose  emission  had  serious medical
   effects on claimant's pregnant wife and young son, as well  as on
   claimant  himself.  As  a result, several  physicians recommended
   that  claimant  and   his  family  move  from   the  contaminated
   environment.
 
        Claimant attempted to sell his home in Crockett from January
   1995 until April 1996,  but was unable to do so.   He, therefore,
   took the home off the market in April 1996.  On October 31, 1996,
   claimant vacated the house and  moved to a temporary residence in
   Dale City, California, which  is approximately thirty-five  miles
   from  Crockett and  ten  miles  from  the  San Francisco  Customs
   Service  office.    Claimant  subsequently  rented  the  Crockett
   property to a third party.
 
        On September 17,  1997, claimant  was notified  that he  was
   being  transferred to the  Customs Service office  in Plantation,
   Florida,  with  a  reporting  date  of  January 25,  1998.     On
   January 8, 1998, claimant  sold his house in Crockett.   He seeks
   $12,715.01 in closing costs associated with that sale.
 
        The  agency  denied  claimant's  request  for  reimbursement
   because the Crockett house was not his residence at the time that
   he was notified of transfer --  it was not  the place from  which
   he regularly commuted  to and from work,  as  required by Federal
   Travel Regulation (FTR) 302-6.1 -- and his move from Crockett was
   not incident  to his transfer.   Claimant contends that  he would
   have lived in the residence had it not been for circumstances and
   conditions beyond his control, mainly the health of his family.
 
                               Discussion
 
        Statute  authorizes an agency  to reimburse an  employee for
   real  estate expenses incurred in  the sale of  a residence at an
   old duty station incident to  a transfer.  5 U.S.C.   5724a(d)(1)
   (West Supp. 1997).  The implementing regulations provide that the
   residence  being sold  must be  at  the employee's  old "official
   station."  41  CFR 302-6.1 (1997).  The  regulations also provide
   that  with respect to  reimbursement of residence  sale expenses,
   "official  station means  the residence  or  other quarters  from
   which the employee 'regularly commutes to and from work.'" 41 CFR
   302-1.4(k).      This   Board  has   consistently   enforced  the
   regulation's  requirement that an  employee regularly  commute to
   and from a residence in  order to make residential sales expenses
   reimbursable.   Ezzat Asaad,  M.D., GSBCA 14484-RELO, 98-1  BCA  
   29,667; Malcolm L.  Jowers, GSBCA 13727-RELO, 97-1 BCA    28,800.
   Thus,  the  agency is  correct  that  because  claimant  did  not
   regularly commute from the  house he sold, he is not  entitled to
   reimbursement under the FTR.
 
        In addition,  given the  sequence of  events  in this  case,
   claimant's  move was  not "incident  to his  transfer."   Rather,
   claimant  moved  from  Crockett  in  October 1996,  but  was  not
   transferred to Florida until January 1998.  Claimant's  move from
   his Crockett house admittedly resulted from the chemical emission
   and the related health hazards as opposed to the transfer itself.
   As  such,  his move  from  that  house was  not  incident to  his
   transfer.
 
                                Decision
 
        The claim is denied.
   ________________________________
 
                                      MARY ELLEN COSTER WILLIAMS
                                      Board Judge